I’m sure people had to put up with much worse stuff from RPGs 20 years ago.
Yeah, that’s one of the main reasons I stopped playing once I got to Deep Caverns. I had already maxed my XP and skills out, had crafted the best armor and sniper rifle, and generally finished all the other game quests. I just didn’t feel like a painful slog with no rewards for doing it other than ‘you finished the game’. That’s not enough for me anymore at my age.
I bought Underrail in EA and, as I recall, Deep Caverns was tacked on very late in development shortly before release. I feel like the developer made a big mistake adding that final zone. The game was already long enough and balanced for XP and loot around what was already there. I think it was a mistake that he didn’t raise the XP cap or add/allow more skills to go with the new zone. I don’t know what he was thinking because he kind of lost his mind there after having made a lot of really good design decisions earlier in development.
All that said, I absolutely loved the game up until I got to Deep Caverns so I would never say don’t buy it.
The expansion is supposed to have an effect on XP and balance since the two parts of the game are going to be interleaved. Not sure how DC will be affected.
I only played through the game once, but my main issues with DC were the frequent respawning (especially the tunnel worms), and running out of resources.
You just need to git… holy shit I just took a look at that site. Wow.
I still want to play through this but it’s good to know I can stop if I want near the end. The Deep Caverns sounds like unmitigated bullshit, especially in my case if you hit the end of the development curve.
Afaik DC development was a team effort, with someone else besides Styg being the lead. At least that’s what I read on steam forums at some point.
That said, on my last character I think I hit level 22 or 23 before I entered DC, so I still had some progression ahead. I played with Oddity of course, which is the intended system and what the game is balanced around. I also breezed through the zone thanks to stealth and ammo-free build (psi-monk) and generally had little issues with…well anything.
There was just one area that is pretty bad, and that was the mushroom forest where enemies respawn very often and very fast.
In any case - expansion is going to raise the level cap and add veterancy levels, and I’m sure DC will get rebalanced in the process, since a lot of people didn’t like it.
I started my first real Dominating run yesterday after putting it off for so long - too long. The horror stories I’ve read made me a little apprehensive but I have to say it has been quite manageable so far. I’m playing a full PSI character and the cheese with chain CC you can pull off is just ridiculous. I can’t wait to get Locus of Control next level, maybe I’ll actually be able to progress the story then lol. I already ran into some nasty surprises that I’m quite positive I couldn’t handle with different builds, such as sledgehammer with low will. Silent Isle for example adds THREE Goliaths (huge psi beetles) near the stolen cargo so in that case I’d probably rather just pay the quest npc for information rather than do tasks for them. And right now I just cleared the Burrower cave near Camp Hathor and there were 3 or 4 Burrower Warriors in there total. The entrance to warehouse near Rail Crossing is guarded by a group of 6 Ironheads, including 2 grenadiers and a psionic, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to take them on with LoC+Enrage combo, otherwise I’m not sure what I’ll do - maybe go to Core City first and try to progress there.
It almost feels like I’m playing the game for the first time again, and I’m using way more consumables than usual too. Loving it!
edit: forgot to mention, Mercantile skill is fantastic. It’s a huge QoL improvement and the extra stock you can unlock at some merchants is very much worth it if you’re heavy into crafting.
Update (I do love bumping this thread :)) - I’m now level 22 on Dominating, cleared most of the lower Underrail, including caves, Balor’s warehouse block, and Core City Arena (which I finished at level 16, after reloading 20 times to win initiative check vs Carnifex lol). The character I’m playing is SUPERB. The level of control over the battlefield that a high level PSI character gets is amazing, and reminds me of playing a Sorcerer in Baldur’s Gate 2. I went against 10+ human opponents at once and came out alive. Or 6 Death Stalkers at once. I also managed to get far enough in the Oculite questline to unlock their trader, which is honestly more than I hoped for because I have super low stealth. I’m getting by by using a Cloaking Device when needed, but the other big piece of my equipment that has has saved my hide more times than I can count is the Regenartive Psi vest, which gives me ~45 hit points per turn if I drop below 70%. Not too shabby, considering I’m currently at 225hp. This happens in combat too, which is what makes it so good. Tanky robots are still the bane of my existence because I have so few sources of electrical and mechanical damage, but thankfully they’re very rare and because of my high crafting skills I’m able to make Mk3 EMP grenades which certainly helps.
This definitely feels like the strongest character I’ve played to date.
Great write up. You make me want to play again, but I have too many other games to play right now. I remember you telling me once that a psi character could have a couple potential struggles in a key point or two near the end. Still think that’s so after the current character you’re playing?
I don’t remember all the hard sections with robot enemies from Deep Caverns but I think it should be entirely doable. Between Focus+Trance, Exothermic aura, Force Wall and periodic stuns between Safe Modes I think it will be fine. So far I’ve had to turn back once, in the Abandoned Warehouse (where you pick up the energy cell for Rail Crossing quest, to disable the Faceless bots) because it had 3 Death Stalkers, a Plasma Walker and Industrial bot. I couldn’t handle the industrial bot at the time since I was only level 13 or 14, but I’m confident I could easily clear the place now. There’s another section with lots of robots in the Institute questline, but if I remember correctly you can completely bypass that encounter if you have high hacking skill. You lose out on a unique Oddity (worth 3 points) that way though, but since I’m playing on Classic I don’t particularly care about that.
Tell me about it. I really shouldn’t have started playing again lol, but once I did it was too late.
I just re-installed. Bounced off it a while back because of constant rats and getting lost, but they’ve since added a map. Could you recommend me a good beginner build. Would prefer a sniper type, but not sure if that is too difficult.
Not anymore unfortunately. A patch came out a while ago that changed some things (HEAVY quick tinkering nerf, smart goggles no longer work with special non-conditional attacks, etc) so I’m not up to date with all the mechanics. I recommend you head over to the official forum, when I was there a few days ago a lot of players were asking about builds, sniper among them.
But cursory reading of the patch notes tell me that old sniper builds should still work (smart goggles still affect snipe and aimed shot), as long as you don’t rely on quick tinkering too much, but that’s more in domain of crossbow users anyway. Just keep in mind that you will need a backup weapon as a sniper in some situations - ARs fill that role pretty well.
Another very viable option is psi monk, you can find my build somewhere in this thread. Bonus for new player is that it has zero crafting so you don’t have to worry about all those funky looking items. Another VERY potent option is full psi user (with stealth!), I believe I also posted a link somewhere upthread, if not poke me and I’ll look for it tomorrow. I took that character to Deep Caverns on Dominating difficulty with minimal issues, by far the strongest character I’ve ever played, 10/10 would recommend.
Thanks, I’ll check out the official forums. I found this one on RPG Codex but it is not recent. It look interesting though.
Uh, I don’t even know where to begin.
Find something else if you don’t want to give up on the game again.
This is your psi monk from upthread. I’ll try this and read your comments.
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMLCAUDCgYAAADCh8KHwofCh3BLAAAAAAAAAMKHwocASQAATyQdFCAGEhMrQQchKk48
That should still work just fine. If I remember correctly I started with 8 dex, 3 con and 7 agi. You get a stat point every 4 levels. Save taste for blood for until after you get the Claw, you can rely on your fists or fist weapons up to that point just fine. Keep in mind that Uncanny Dodge requires 8 agi so if you want to grab it early make sure you fit the requirements. Also keep your lockpicking in check and let it fall behind hacking a bit because you’ll raise your dex later.
The build also assumes the use of Huxkey but that’s basically just for opening the very top end of locks, of which there are like 4 total in the entire game, and contain mostly randomly generated loot. With the skill levels in that build you should be able to pass every important stat check in the game.
I also recommend you play on Classic because it has a smoother leveling curve.
Yes, because the calculator automatically deducts points from first stat it can, in this case dexterity because 3 is minimum value and strength wasn’t an option. Start with 3 str, 8 dex, 7 agi, 3 con, 3 per, 10 will and 6 int and you’re good.
Sounds good, thanks!
I am waiting to replay for when the expansion is released. ETA?
@tylertoo couple extra tips:
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learn all psychokinesis and thought control abilities from the two trainers in the starting station as soon as they become available. This goes double for Force Emission because it will pretty much double your damage output in the early levels.
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look up on wiki how to acquire other abilities. Bilocation is absolutely critical and can be acquired pretty early on. You won’t find much use of it until you get Locus of Control but still, get it asap.
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the feats I’ve taken in that build of mine are not in order, but the first 10 levels or so are accurate, so you can freely stick with the list. The only one that’s absolutely critical to get ASAP is Locus of Control, I think the earliest you can get it is level 14.