dn
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the motherfucking darknation
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Post by dn on Aug 9, 2021 14:14:28 GMT -5
Old hands may remember me waxing fondly about DoomRL back in the day. Well, the "spiritual successor" - Jupiter Hell - is finished, available on GOG, humble, etc. I'm downloading it over a pipe smaller than Xeep's urethra right now, hoping this piece of shit laptop can run the fucking thing. Anyone else playing it?
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dmdr
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Post by dmdr on Aug 9, 2021 19:14:16 GMT -5
I don't really like DoomRL because in Doom dodging is a function of player skill, but in DRL it's totally RNG based (yes this is the sole and only reason for my disliking it), but I am interested in this. I would be keener it if that screen curvature filter thing on the UI can be turned off though. Anyway tell me your thoughts when you've tried it.
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dn
Body Count: 02
the motherfucking darknation
Posts: 1,726
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Post by dn on Aug 9, 2021 19:25:25 GMT -5
Meh, there are ways to mitigate the RNG in DoomRL's strafing - certain traits you can take on leveling up, type / heaviness of armour etc. etc. Not skill based, granted, but tactical none-the-less. I think, given the absolute shitshow that is most roguelike shooting, DoomRL handled it extraordinarily well. I've built characters before that, given a running start, were literally impossible to hit. You can actually circle-strafe the cyberdemon at near point-blank range with no risk to yourself, which is pretty hilarious.
As for the screen-curvature in Jupiter Hell, I doubt I'll be seeing much of it - if there is a way to switch off graphics and go pure ASCII then that's the way I'll be playing, as God intended.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2021 22:48:49 GMT -5
Bought, downloaded and installed offline. Dunno how about "switch off graphics", but so far was fun. Running on a dated piece of shit graphics card that won't run Doom 2016, and Windows 7. I didn't enable Vulkan. However, I'm completely new to roguelikes, so I can't tell it if it's cool for veteran, but I've enjoyed what little I played (the work day started). I took the easy difficulty since I have no roguelike experience, didn't rush to get to elevator though, stayed to kill more guys and level up.
By the way, this game (Jupiter Hell) has foul/swearing language customization. If you to settings, you can choose "Heavy", I don't think it is offered in the initial screen (there was only "Default", "Clean" (no swearing), "Serious" (don't imitate games of 80s), "Serious/Clean" (no swearing and no homages to 80s games)"). I chose "Heavy", and the text/lines by protagonist didn't appear comical as of yet. Class descriptions rock.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2021 22:52:49 GMT -5
My video card is OpenGL 4.6 compatible IIRC, and the minimum requirements are OpenGL 4.3+. And the videocards DirectX stats: DirectX 11 featureset avaiable on up to DirectX 12 API.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2021 23:07:42 GMT -5
I cleared Callisto and am travelling to Europa. Playing as a Marine. Oddly enough I missed some kills and loot (89%/87%). I have currently an auto-reloading on move pistol with 2 augments (out of 3), a reliable one-shot shotgun and a semi-automatic weapon that has little ammo left though. For now it almost seems that I could have been playing on normal difficulty, although I think I would be grilled on hard. I'm glad the inventory is limited, so the game is not a total pushover and forces you to figure out priorities, as well as picking one skill that is only good because it unlocks better skill and is crucial on the road to ultimate(master) skill. Also, the game does get harder slowly, with facing up multiple enemies, or having destroyable obstacles that are crucial to be removed to have good accuracy (both for you and enemies). Sometimes I get caught in the clear, I don't stay long in the clear though, really am trying to move to cover the fastest.
So far the game is easier than a (not a roguelike game, but free software) like Battle for Wesnoth. I quit playing Battle for Wesnoth because I don't like lore changes a certain maintainer pushes, although deathmatch against a computer is somewhat enjoyable.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2021 0:13:40 GMT -5
Got a chaingun to replace the semi-automatic thing as the ammo drops pretty regular, and put an upgrade onto it that vastly reduced swap time lol (75% swap time reduction got it from 150% down to 37% or something). Now I've reached the level in Europa where there is a timeout, heh. Things also get serious, glad I've crafted military-grade (marine's rather than basic) armor and helmet, have to level-up my dodge though to compensate the dodge debuff of heavy armor. Also crafting an armor had used up all of my multitools. I don't miss the opportunity to craft mod packs either at those stations, that swap time reduction was crafted IIRC.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2021 13:34:25 GMT -5
Dead on Io, the third planet. This game is actually no pushover. The difficulty increases a lot with each episode, and I also ran out of ammo on my chaingun. The superheavy temple armor even with 2 additional inventory slots and a survivor master skill is not enough to compensate for dumb moves (I got surrounded). This is on easy, mind you.
At least I've earned 1 bronze badge for reaching Io (badges and medals are awarded when the game concludes - either you survive or die - having met the prerequisite). Now I have unlocked trials and challenge modes, 2 of each. Trials and challenges are limited to medium and above difficulties, no easy for wussies/roguelike noobs like me by the way. Still, that haste trial looks appealing, I might just try it, even though I would stick to easy otherwise.
EDIT: I don't feel like spamming this thread, since no one replies FFS. I tried out Haste on medium, dead on Io, same level, another bronze badge is mine. This time there was no exalted, but poison instead... and I keep forgetting to use fucking grenades. It took 1/3 of normal gametime to get to where I died. Anyway this game is dope, definitely check it out.
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dmdr
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Post by dmdr on Aug 12, 2021 0:29:14 GMT -5
I'm interested in your thoughts on the game Vigilant, just don't have anything to add. You can spam if you'd like
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2021 16:53:19 GMT -5
Io planet is the bane of my runs so far, where the most successful of them end. I also keep trying to reach Io on everything, not necessary winning the entire game, because merely reaching it gives a bronze badge. I've reached it on 2 trials and 1 challenge on medium difficulty now: Haste trial, Purity trial and Confidence challenge. While reaching Io on base game (easy difficulty back then) and Haste and Purity trials was done on the first try, the Confidence challenge enabled me to experience a dozen of deaths. The challenge is: you are skipping the first episode and going straight to second, thus starting it without decent weapons, armors or experience. Io is just episode away: the next one. But it's much harder to reach it this way than starting from the beginning. I eventually got a decent rifle with a prebuilt "applies bleeding status effect", and stacked my choice of mods on it, and it became the paragon of winning except fucking IO, died to IO lvl 2 (so far the farthest I got into Io was on Purity trial, dead on Io Lvl 6). AV1 7.62 assult rifle PBA
Swap Harness: decreases swap time by 75% (a mod I added, from bulk pack) Longshot 1: bonus damage against enemies at range 5+ (a mod I added, from power pack) Calibrated 1: increases optimal range (a mod I added, from accuracy pack) Barbed 3: applies bleeding status effect (this rifle started with it)
11 impact
automatic Shots: 3 (11x3 means it deals 33 impact damage per trigger press) Range: 2/5/8 (The default for rifles is 2/3/8, except for some even-longer ranged rifles; the breakdown is below 2 effectiveness is decreased, then up to 5 it's optimal, then it degrades again and you can't shoot farther than 8 cells away) Swap Time: 25% (default is 100%) Reload time: 150% Magazine: 18/18 Mods : 3/3 It's not the best by far, but was good enough (because accurate first and foremost) Also when you have three bronze badges (easiest by rushing IO on base game and two trials), the harder than hard (Ultra-violence) difficulty is unlocked. It's not the hardest, the hardest is Nightmare! the requisites for which are higher and it has respawning monsters, like it should, and the description for it says "not even remotely trying to be fair" lol. Yes, this game contains MANY references to Doom, and there are also the "six shots gotta be enough for everybody" lines and other kind of 90s jokes. The challenge I mentioned above also requires three badges (a total of four challenges become available), the Endless trial has the same requisites as well, and is roguelike like it should be, stay alive for as long as possible while going through infinite amount of procedurally generated levels (the prebuilt ones are not featured). So, if you were wondering what's the deal with Io, well there the enemies primary use plasma attacks that diminish armor effectiveness against them, and are long-ranged high HP beasts that take a punishment to kill. Any of your weapons that are not automatic or packing a punch are immediately obsolete, and you should be replacing at least one of your three weapons with plasma-based anyway in the first Io level. The protagonist even gives the same line every time for it: "My turn", implying the levels are heavily focused around plasma, the enemies will be using plasma, and your best weapons are plasma-based, and only few non-plasma-based remain effective: chainguns, high-caliber rifles, rocket launchers (forget about non-plasma pistols and shotguns, or lower-caliber rifles/SMGs). Challenges are vastly harder than trials, even by looking at description one could say it. The first challenge allows you only 4 inventory slots instead of 12 (!), the second one allows you to use only rocket launcher, the third is the one I've played and it's about skipping an episode, the fourth is pistol-and-revolver-only (how the hell would I beat Io with this?). There is lot more to unlock yet. One of the hard challenges has you skip TWO episodes and start on fucking Io without experience!!! As for style, weapons (and armor) in this game can be modded, and one of my gotos is modding accuracy (increasing optimal range), the other is cutting 75% of swap time on two of my most used weapons so I can switch between these two AND shoot before I have to move, if I sighted enemy for a range the other weapon is more effective. So one of the weapons having it will be a rifle, for example, having a far reach but also a minimum range below which its efficiency is decreased, the other has no such minimum range but is not far reaching (a shotgun or revolver). Rocket launchers are also cool to use, as they kill or very badly damage stuff with one hit. There are also random assorts of e-mails found on terminal in these levels, they are not mandatory to read and often have funny references or even straight people cursing at each other "go fuck yourself", but sometimes there is also valuable intel about how to access a specific level in the future... anyway, this doesn't force it on yourself like Doom 3 if you don't like reading, you can simply ignore this option of the terminal, and see if it disables turrets for free instead (if it wants a multitool, it can go fuck itself - multitool has better uses), or unlock remotely-locked vaults in this level (purple colored locked doors). Unlocking vaults frequently releases beasts within, but there is better loot, oh and red keycard usually unlocks a section that hosts even better loot, the thing is keycards take place in your inventory, thus depending on your priorities, it's worth to drop them if you need an additional healing item.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2021 10:47:36 GMT -5
I ran out of ammo on fucking Io trying to beat main campaign on medium, because Io provided me scarce for the weapons I was having, and the chaingun for which I had ammo, wasn't doing enough damage so I swapped it for plasma rifle (the best damage) on the very first Io level, but Io gave me shit for plasma. I'm mad, because this run was otherwise lucky. Really, how come there was only 7.62 ammo for that fucking chaingun that can't kill even mooks realiably without getting hit in retaliation, and no 7.62 weapon. Nothing for my uber-shot revolver with a magazine of 3 (THREE!) bullets only (it was killing stuff anyway)... not even enough of plasma to sustain the need for new weapons.
Fuck this. I will bring a rocket launcher next time.
Ah fuck, I forgot I had grenades, could have thrown at them all I had. No ammo but could actually kill. Well, the level I ran out of ammo wouldn't provide any in return anyway, so would be done for on the next level anyway. The points score is still the highest on this run for some reason.
This is golden though: Lol! Yeah, what the fuck would I do without health or ammo... throw grenades? Nah, didn't check my inventory for that. There was a plasma grenade BTW that deals 200 plasma damage (more kill than overkill), could have one shotted that fucker. But still there was full level of them. Them, and turrets. But the funniest thing that fucking plasma ravager dealt meager 2 points of damage, shame it was enough to kill me.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2021 11:27:56 GMT -5
Ha, I may try clearing a specific level of the first episode - Callisto Anomaly - on hard. That should give me a bronze and a silver badge I'm missing for the next rank and a wagon of new challenges unlocked. It will also unlock Nightmare! difficulty for the lulz (because I'm not really crazy to try to win that when I can't even beat medium).
Will probably be harder than reaching Io anywhere on medium, but at least its one episode and I won't need to spend time blasting the shit out of two episodes on medium seemingly effortlessly only to die in third. That is, death will set me back not so high... even if there will be plenty attempts that ultimately conclude in deaths.
Let's rock...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2021 12:03:47 GMT -5
Wow, this really needs grenades or whatever. Everything up to it was easyish, even on hard, but the Callisto Anomaly is a boss fight with a boss that summons tough mooks and is completely unlike anything leading up to it. (Yeah, it was noticeable it was harder than medium, but nothing that is not manageable to me thanks to me already knowing which weapons are good at what range, and which are the ones to look out.) If I didn't even know there was enemies I wouldn't find them, though, because there is only narrow path leading to this boss fight, you only stumble on it if you really WANT to have hard time, otherwise you just walk around and exit to next level (that won't give you any award, so off to fight we go).
Getting to it takes less than half an hour, though, so practice, practice, practice. It was clearly meant to be beaten (even as a very tough challenge), even if needs some rng blessing and perfect execution,
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2021 3:36:06 GMT -5
Mwahaha!!!! So, I've reached Lvl10+ on Endless (died to Lvl17 or something, the second level with plasma troopers and some really stron and durable CRI bots), that gets me a bronze badge, all I needed a silver badge to unlock Nightmare! difficulty and a bunch of further challenge modes and the last two trials (I think), and I think I'll have it, except I'm not dead yet, and badges only awarded once you die/quit/win.
Why do I think I'll have it once I die/win/quit? Because I cleared Callisto Anomaly on HARD, as a Technician.
This is what I ENTERED that level with:
This is what I left it with:
I think I'm well positioned to keep going, except this is Hard difficulty, and I'm used to medium. It took me a lot of deaths before I rolled the seed so good and actually played carefully (I have eaten meat in real-life just prior, that seemed to made me less agitated and more cautious).
Why technician? Technician has no skill prerequisites for Whizkid skill (thus no need to spend a skill point on useless skill, grab it immediately), unlike Marine, even though I like Marine the most. The Sustained fire (and thus rifles, SMGs, chainguns) seem like the best deal, and I first rushed The Sustained Fire Lvl 1 skill, then Whizkid I think, and than maxed out Sustained fire. SMGs also have the most amount of shots, and since the bonus is applied to each shot, they beat rifles except for shitty accuracy. To auto-calibrate my primary SMG (the 9mm ammo using one, first slot, which I didn't end up using for Callisto Anomaly) I had to use it exclusively for two levels at least, because auto-calibration bonus is only applied after you kill 50 enemies after installing it, but I managed to do this. Except then I got .44 super-SMG on Callisto Mines Lvl3, which allowed me to cut through arch-reavers as through butter.
Whizkid Lvl 1 was needed to put 100% Acid resistance on body armor and Critial 10 on head armor. I don't think I even used Acid resistance in the end. Who knew I will have a motherfucking .44-ammo based SMG? That's the highest ammo caliber out there. But, Critical 10 might have worked, and then it worked good.
I laughed loudly like a maniac many times in real life when I beat this so easily. I mean, they really were cut like butter, yes I did use medikit (or two) midfight, used whatever I had though, but I didn't use smoke screens, care to move to cover, I just shot-shot-shot besides healing, and well how quickly they fell, that's was very impressive.
Looks like earning this medal seemed easier after all (despite the many deaths, and quite a bunch even in the first level, because enemies swarm me and all are behind cover, and I was getting impatient a lot) than winning the game (which I still didn't). I can't handle enemies shooting plasma on Io, and this is what killed me in Endless run as well. Until plasma-focused levels began, I wasn't even changellened in Endless (I played on medium). But when plasma level comes, a lot of weapons become obsolete, and plasma cuts through armor like butter, weapons have insane range, and there are also durable and very-damaging bots. I need to think up some strategy for it, but even cover doesn't help me much there.
Also, yes, if you wondered, my loadout was pretty fucking lucky. Seed H S8997, now on Callisto L6 (Low Power is applied to level), paused at the beginning. Callisto Mines L3 -> Callisto Anomaly -> Callisto L6.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2021 3:43:29 GMT -5
I should try to survive Hard as long as possible... unlikely to win the game, but hell did it start out good. The problem is that all this ammo will run out at one point, and the Shotgun I got is pretty cool, but I put my bet onto automatics. The technician is also the skill I only picked up for this challenge, I didn't practice it otherwise, instead I played Marine for everything else (which has access to better health pool via early-game skills). I forgot to add that Technician starts with multitools, so it's not just easy access to Whizkid that I needed, but basically one free armor pack as soon as the station is available. So, yes, I tailored class/skills/mod packs/weapons for claiming the reward, but it might prove very suboptimal farther into the game.
Also, to conserve multitools needed to create those armor packs besides the spare one, I delayed picking the first armor pieces I get until I cleared the level 2, letting enemies damage my health but not armor since I was wearing none.
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dmdr
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Post by dmdr on Aug 16, 2021 3:56:00 GMT -5
how's the early game in this? I know you don't have much roguelike experience (since you said so above) but lots of them are fucking boring at the start due to samey enemies and equipment (example: BRogue is fucking cool once you get some sweet gear but boring for the first couple dungeon levels). So like, do you think that the player classes are meaningfully different at the start? And are there many different enemies that behave differently and require different tactics to deal with early on? If so, do they all appear in every game or are there different mixes each time?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2021 4:54:59 GMT -5
There is a lot of randomness in both enemies and equipment, enemies can be biological or mechanical, regular or exalted ("fuck this thing in particular", "this can be a real shitshow" like the protagonist says when he sights one), flying or ground based (flying mechanical bots seem to dodge shotgun real good, a pain in the ass to kill; also flyers can move over abyss tiles), have weapons of vastly different range or melee-only but move 2 tiles at once.
Levels can have mutators applied to them (hunt - after timer expires, all enemies come at you, every turn several might be in sight on HARD), exalted summons (after timer expires, tough mooks are summoned on every spot you didn't disable by moving onto it - spots shown on radar while timer lasts, and you have to deal with regular enemies while you try to close all these summon portals); optional branches have different requirments per run, you should read messages on the terminal to see which are available, what uber-loot is known to be there, or if you will need to repair the lift/bring a red keycard to access one; etc. All this randomness is from the level 2 onwards, the level 1 also seems to have enemies with varying weaponry, I think flyers are already there, and you don't really use shotgun on them... they also always have automatic weapons but drop only ammo.
There are also dark levels with reduced visibility and what not.
Techinician class has smoke screen but mechanical units don't seem to give a shit about it, in short different units have different immunities/resistances, and all this diversity occurs from Level 2 onwards (I think exalted are already on Level 2 on Hard, if not then Level 3)
I have seen all kinds of rifles, revolvers and even sometimes chaingun and rocket launcher appear in first episode, all before Callisto Anomaly (which is within a special branch, Callisto Mines, which is guaranteed to have no mechanical units by the way).
I died plenty times on Hard on the very first level.
So all the above applies to early game.
Classes are meaningfully different in the beginning and diverge even more further into the game. Indeed, that's exactly why I took Technician to claim the Callisto Anomaly on hard rather than Marine I always play as otherwise. Cause 3 multitools and Whizkid with no prerequisited is better than a small medikit, even if you'll be stuck with 100 health instead of 160 you can get with Marine easily and early. Most skills are different in all classes, it's just the skills I used in the last run are available for each (I think), BUT as I said, no skill points wasted on useless shit (unlike how would it have been with Marine), even at expense of survivability, do make a difference in getting the challenge.
Then there are challenge modes and trials that may remove pre-built levels or introduce some serious restrictions. Yeah, you need to earn your right to play some, but you don't need to win entire game for that, you can just rush third episode in whatever you can, merely reaching it in any mode (and the main campaign too) awards you a bronze badge once you die/give up/win, and with enough bronze badges and no silver you can unlock 4 challenges ("tiny inventory", "rocket launcher only", "pistol only", "start on second episode with no experience") and 3 trials (Haste, Purity, Endless), so if you are bored with campaign, try those. First 2 challenges and first 2 trials are available by only reaching third episode on campaign, which an experienced player should do on first try (fuck I did it on first try, on Easy difficulty though). Trials and challenges can only be started on Medium difficulty and above, and challenges are WAY harder than trials. Really the fuck with first avaiable challenge given you 4 (FOUR!) inventory slots instead of 12.
So, boring? Hell no! First level in campaign can be somewhat boring but that's mitigated by choosing higher difficulty... even then it can have mechanical flying bots as well as former humans IIRC, and on Hard opening the very first door you might face several of them, all behind cover, so you need to lure them out, and also take care of when to reload (might need full reload after first shot, cause then you will shoot until your magazine is empty). All of them can be armed differently, each time plays differently from the last one.
Also, there are five difficulties: EASY, MEDIUM, HARD - these are available straight away, ULTRA-VIOLENCE (need three bronze badges, reach Io in campaign and say in Haste and Purity trials - easiest way to unlock), NIGHTMARE! (5 bronze badges, and 1 silver, I should be having it once I'm done with current playthrough... silver is either win a game, or do Callisto Anomaly on Hard with early firepower somehow). Nightmare! has respawn for enemies, I have not yet played it, but they may respawn in exalted form(?!) well that be truly fucked up difficulty, "not even remotely trying to be fair", as developers put it.
I haven't tried Scout class yet. But all classes have vastly different strengths, and in fact that's why I preferred to play Marine as the most forgiving early on. However, it might be that Technician shines better at later levels while being squishy at early ones (smoke doesn't stop mechanical enemies, and bots are actually what gives the most trouble... yeah he can hack them, but you need to level up and spend point of that skill first). Why do I think so? Because easier access to Whizkid, which means putting better perks on the weapons and armor (surviving by dishing out damage rather than handling a lot of punishment like a Marine does, with his extended health and dodge-by-moving passive skill - of course, if you level up that).
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2021 5:03:02 GMT -5
tl;dr having beat Callisto Anomaly on Hard, I'm still in the first episode, and have two more levels to go before I exit it and go to the second. Number of deaths is 14, all except three are without even reaching Callisto Anomaly, and I have never gotten past the first episode on Hard yet (my current playthrough is living, though, I just feel I have achieved enough in this game for today).
Endless game mode was kinda boring on medium despite the randomness, I've gotten cool guns on that... but then levels began centering around plasma, just like Io, and two levels into that new setting I died. But Endless is the only that seemed surprisingly boring (until suddenly making heel turn and killing me). Haste/Purity were good stuff, same with Angel of Confidence challenge (skip first episode, and start from the second, this is where I began to die without reaching Io over and over again, on Medium no less). Challenges on Medium are probably close to main game on Hard.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2021 13:42:11 GMT -5
Well, I got impatient, and got through second episode, which was no challenge at all with all the stuff I got! Except I missed kills due to visiting "The Pit" but not summoning any uber-enemies... well, fuck, I will do 100% some other day.
Basically, Fiend Crown converts not only normal fiends to my side, but also exalted fiends. Meaning those melee fuckers do my bidding. I can also kill them without retaliation just in case they drop something good (sometimes they do). Since I decided to focus around SMGs, I picked up Hoarder L1 and Scavenger L2 skills. The other 2 skill points since the previous post I spent on Son of a Gun L2, since that gives bonus not only to pistols, but to SMGs as well. Since Scavenger is a skill that only Scouts and Technicians can use, I'm pretty glad I cleared Callisto Anomaly with a class other than a marine (cause it would be hard to go forward with SMGs given armor scarcity, but Scavenger allows to convert ammo from one type to another).
In short, SMGs+ Callisto Anomaly rewards currently destroyed the difficulty completely of the second scenario. That doesn't mean I don't die on IO, again... also, I have now three SMGs total, my third SMG is CRI 7.62 riot SMG B:
I also moved my armor mods to a bit better armor:
I also have AV2 .44 hunter rifle P as a fourth slot (four weapons slots because Hoarder skill of Technician) in case I need to shoot something from afar. It does piss-poor damage though, looking at its stats. Never used it in practice, but might need it for the coming plasma levels. Still better of using my SMGs, though... I should get that Sharpshooter skill.
I admit, could mod weapons better, but so far the challenge was absent (pussied out The Pit by going out but not triggering event, since it's non-descript "Who?" - who knows if it will release something or just wipe me out? I didn't read messages in previous level attentively to know)
P.S. I forgot to say, that on some level a bug occured. I dismantled chaingun, but didn't get my mods back. I wanted to recover them so that I could spend one on new 7.62 SMG I found, which uses same ammo type as chaingun, but more powerful per initial volley, and more economical overall. Dismantling armor to upgrade via station did work flawlessly though, I could apply all the mods to new armor. So I happened upon a bug, I think.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2021 14:51:15 GMT -5
Ok, I lost my guard and got reduced to 2 health points at the end of Io lvl 5, doing fine otherwise. Naturally didn't live long after, although could have with better planning.
Also, as I found out on that very Io lvl 5, is that armor-piercing rifle is good even if you are otherwise focusing on SMGs. Takes out CRI bots in one fucking hit. In fact, it gave me the overconfidence that was the cause of my demise, I just run into an enemy while crossing few tiles holding running key lol.
Anyway, yes, - Anomaly Bronze Badge (clear Callisto Anomaly) - Anomaly Silver Badge (clear Callisto Anomaly on HARD or higher) are mine as per this run. The score is currently the highest too... and I can congratulate myself with unlocking Nightmare! difficulty, Angel of Shotgunnery challenge, Angel of Hubris challenge and Arena Trial. Speaking of which, Angel of Hubris makes you start directly on Io, the third episode, without experience. So I finally can practice Io until I learn to fucking do it (under harsher conditions), and then obviously would be able to clear the game. Cause Io likes too fucking much to phase out entire damage types, but you need to spend a lot of time getting there.
!! So yes, unlocked Nightmare! without beating the main game. And now can see its modifiers in the menu: - max danger level (more than Ultra-Violence? that one had more than Hard by the way) - non-gibbed biological enemies respawn off-vision after death as exalted variants (fuck this shit in particular) - +10% to enemy accuracy (same as Ultra-Violence) - +50% generated ammo
P.S. this game is fond of going from "I'm having this too easy" to "fuck, I'm definitely will be dead soon". I am not used to think every turn, but this really requires it.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2021 12:48:08 GMT -5
Ok, I managed to reach one step beyond Io episode: got to Beyond L1 at Medium difficulty on Haste trial. Not the same episode that would follow Io in campaign, AFAIK, but doesn't matter. It's the first time I got further.
Anyway, I died to a medusa, and I've encountered more medusas than I would like. The mortem screen said I killed three fucking medusas up to that point. Well, this enemy is bollocks. It can damage MAX health at range, seems to deal a lot of damage that might ignore armor(unsure) like if it was exalted fucker or CRI bot and doesn't die in one hit even when a lot of Io stuff (and exalted fuckers as well) actually can.
A good takeaway, however, is that Io is not all about plasma, its rather enemies have greater range, accuracy and firepower (plasma really melts armor) than in preceeding episodes. This means you never can avoid damage if you can't kill enemy you sighted before it gets it turn. Enemies seem to always shoot you after you sighted each other, no longer do they choose to move for better accuracy instead, since their accuracy is pretty damn good and even cover barely works. However, weapons brought from other episodes CAN be useful in Io if they are sufficiently strong, of which my new favourite is actually a fully modded AV2 7.62 assault SMG (playing as Technician with set of skills: Son of A Gun, Sustained Fire, Headshot and Sharpshooter mastery) - kills a lot of stuff in one hit.
Also it is important to install auto-calibration instead of or in addition to modding optimal range via accuracy pack. Auto-calibration requires you to kill 50 enemies before the +1 optimal range, +10% damage bonus is applied though, and on my second attempt the run didn't produce modding stations up until Io, which was really unlucky.
Some good stuff I found out on my second attempt though: Plated on AV3 combat armor does increase plasma damage reduction to 4 (from 3). That armor has -30% dodge penalty though, but you need to plate your armor for Io unless you can really kill everything before it has a chance to shoot (possibly using EMP on those bulky heavy CRI bots), because enemies' range is high. You can't run for cover without taking damage if you were sighted on Io, and enemies also seem to have a pretty good accuracy - character always gets damaged even while behing cover. The Pit level of Europa is a complete pushover for SMGs with proper skillset (I was wrong to bail out on it before), so be sure to hit it to get some goodies before Io.
The game also loves to give me the luxurious JAC .44 SMG of all exotics, luxurious because it uses the more rarely found highest caliber bullets.
Despite what I have read in some advice (might have been situational though), combat pistol - shooting 2 shots rather than 1 with a magazine of 10 bullets - is actually useful in early game if you level up skills that buff your pistols crit, range etc. It's ammo-conservative in fact compared to SMGs, and preserves your health better since enemies don't survive with tiny bits of health (and get a chance to shoot back), they die. Bit similar to revolver, except revolver uses rarer ammo type and reloads each single bullet separately rather than whole magazine.
p.s. Getting the hang of playing as Technician by the way, being able to move mods from one weapon/armor piece to another without using up multitools/mod stations is cool. Armor damaged but an equal armor piece found undamaged? Dismantle the damaged one and install the same mods onto the new one (if having more than one mod you would want to have points in Skilled ability, cause by default only 1 mod is recovered... my most successful run had it maxed to return everything and thus be able to move everything). Modding stuff is cool in general, and Technician has the earliest access to getting better mods as well.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2021 14:24:57 GMT -5
Lol, Arena trial is low-hanging fruit for rewards (once unlocked). Not really balanced effort-wise against the rest. Bronze badge for reaching second stage, silver for reaching third - and that can be done on Medium difficulty. Seems to be merely a test for knowing game mechanics: use grenades, weapon type buff skills paired with weapons, replace armor by manufacturing, be sure to use all up charges on all machines for anything before moving to next stage etc. Gold for completing might be tough, or not... depends on how many stages there actually are. The third wave of third stage featured fucking medusa again, which I don't like fighting (died to it, and currently not looking fondly towards going on).
I suspect this might change a bit in future updates... really, bronze and silver in Arena can be done under 10 minutes or maybe 5 minutes, and in general it felt undercooked somewhat. Endless is funnier than Arena, albeit progresses slower.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2021 5:20:26 GMT -5
I got further on main campaign, now I was dead on Dante Station L3, the third level of fourth episode. It's not Beyond but Dante, because, once again, I did this on main campaign, medium difficulty, not on Haste trial. What's worse than a medusa? An archmedusa, apparently. Same shit, though, just more health, and the tactic - for Technician - is to use smoke screen immediately, run backwards, than dump the most powerful grenade (or two, in case of archmedusa) or fire a rocket from rocket launcher (or two). Anyway it was not archmedusa that killed me, although I did got striken by it once because I fired instead of blinding its sights with smoke first. Instead I died by a bleeding wound and a lack of medikits in inventory for that entire level duration:
My armor was better at some point, but got damaged so badly it was less effective than what you see on above screen, so I dismantled it and trasnferred mods to a new one. Here is the actual best thing that was sometime before it:
Archreaver's plating fucking rocks by the way. +2 to armor, that's like putting Plated 1 on both head and body armor. By the way, I didn't had Plated 1 on my body armor only because I didn't get a chance to produce yet another "strength mod pack", otherwise I would, because further plasma damage reduction.
In any case, thanks to archreaver's plating I got from Callisto Anomaly, I cruised the majority of game receiving little harm. The armor really matters so much the loss of movement speed from relic and dodge penalty from heavy red armor is worth it. The death came with a scarcity of healing items, because the Health Monitor of my helmet otherwise boosted all medikit uses, and the Pockets mod on Body Armor enabled me to use grenades fast enough (before enemy's turn) to handle shit that needed to die ASAP but was behind cover, or was a fucking (arch)medusa, or else.
Also I didn't bring red key cards to Black Site Vaults, so while I cleared it of enemies, I didn't get the treasure. It must have been a real good one due to how it was guarded, the vault door must have been unlockable by a terminal hidden behind red key locked door, there was four such doors, and each was guarded by a four turrets that fired at the same tiny spot one enters through on the way to such door. I don't consider the enemies to be guards, because kerberos, armoured kerberos, archreavers and a fuckload of exalted type enemies all drop in one SMG burst (or two if crit fails) and before they can attack me by this point. What can do damage? Some kind of uberbots (CRI military bot? not just CRI bot, bet even they were weak, also they are actually beefy as well) or armored ravagers, there is some variation of armored ravager that has dual rocket launcher (doesn't drop that weapon, though, for shame).
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2021 14:10:22 GMT -5
Can confirm uniques drop MORE than once per installation, there is a (2) next to Vengeance in unique loot tally summarizing all completed runs. This is good news, even though uniques weren't much use to me yet, usually I just leave them, as they don't go well with my build.
Also, had a run that had no good SMGs, lasted until third level on Io because of my stubborn idea I will get cool SMG by some point. Should have modded that double-magazine size chaingun instead, and used powerful calibrated almost perfectly-accurate .44 revolver as a sidearm, and the run would be gold.
This run also didn't have Callisto Mines (and thus Anomaly).
Also, face-tanked a medusa and a couple of reavers with 34 health or something, no grenades, shooting my plasma pistol with extended magazine until one run out right when that last reaver was near death, and of course he killed me. How could I last so long? Cue the combat armor and combat helmet that both were plated, and an ice fiend's claw relic that gives a -10% debuff to my damage but provides ice aura that chills anything standing in melee range. Could be a real asset in melee-focused run (yeah this game has melee weapons and even melee skills and masteries, will try them someday when I beat the game with guns).
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2021 3:22:56 GMT -5
I've seen final boss (and died to it). It was just one level further than I died before.
I've also got (yet another) silver badge for reaching Endless level #25. Yes, that award is actually per level you visit, not per level you level up to. That's good, because I was still level 16 when I was on level #25, and that's exactly the level where I died on. The run also featured me finding three PLASMA grenades, one such thing can kill archmedusa in one hit. Had a blast through Exalted Curse affected level, where every enemy was exalted. Good thing I have not met exalted medusa yet, I heard that shit exists.
On my run to final boss, I had cryoreaver's claw relic that reduces my damage by 20% but chills everything I hit, as well as EMP mod on my 7.62 assault SMG. That was cool, as bots usually weren't able to shoot me due to being hit with Emp, and everyone was being slowed, thus I avoided damage for the most part, which is a luxury for stages IO+. I also had luck with encountering only 1 archmedusa (which I put down without getting max health reduction) and not any other medusas.
The build in common between these runs (my character was only 1 level higher in main campaign run) shares certain attributes:
Anyway, I have Sergeant rank (need 2 silver badges to get next one, Sergeant Major) now, that means I unlocked the last avaiable trial and additional (but not yet all) challenges.
The last trial names is Royal and it features playing only named levels, which are either special or pre-built to at least some degree, and can visit any number of special levels (which are challenging) per episode in any order I want.
The challenges are Angel of Berserk (melee-only, although can use grenades) and Angel of Impatience (use medikits and stimpacks as soon as I find them, can't carry them). I don't remember if Angel of Vampirism was unlocked before, that one has degenerating health and the only way of healing is killing.
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