What next after getting out of tunnels?

[dracon]

Well, I decided on Ares Gamma Mk4: power6, pen2, acc5 aginst MP and H3 retaliation power3, pen4, acc4, speed4.
Both range3. I was slightly tempted by Raptor II with power6, pen6, acc3 and range 5 - because of range. Since hacker's accuracy is lacking I minght need to cope with shorter range. Any other recomendations?

[grävling]

Hacker Allies -- and Gunslingers, Agent Xen, Faces can use pistols and that is it. I am so happy you are enjoying things, and I'm not one of the game authors.

[dracon]

But what are the pistols exactly? Anything with pistol ammo?

[grävling]

No, Blasta Guns take pistol ammo, and they aren't pistols. But that is pretty much it.

[dracon]

Hmmm... that H3 retaliation with speed 4, pistol ammo, he can use. I just find it very weak aginst those mars samurais and drones - I cannot kill anything. Sniper is much more useful. I will try Raptor II to help with fire on range 5. At least he will be able to hide behind and shoot.

On the other hand I just found that after hacking for full 2 timers on enemy LV territory I had over 300 heat. It took me while to lower it. And I earned like 2k. Hmmm... I think I leave hacker behind as runner.

[dracon]

I just recovered Krofters for Mars - My current rep is 70 with BS and 87 with Mars. I'm just wondering where next story point will be?

[grävling]

This is it. You are done with the story.

Try again with a different char and solve it with a different outcome?

or just continue the game from here. VGo back and talk to Mallor True, do some more work for Lt. Simon?

[dracon]

Well... there is still lots to find, like those nuclear weapons with AzTek etc. I cannot keep high rep with more than 2 factions for long. But I think I will try melee character on higher difficulty now. It just look expensive to develop strenght and dex together. Is it balance between dex and str that should be achievied or is it better to get higher dex even if its melee focused?

[grävling]

Feb 16, 2013 18:25:18 GMT -5 dracon said:

Well... there is still lots to find, like those nuclear weapons with AzTek etc. I cannot keep high rep with more than 2 factions for long. But I think I will try melee character on higher difficulty now. It just look expensive to develop strenght and dex together. Is it balance between dex and str that should be achievied or is it better to get higher dex even if its melee focused?

Melee chars want lots of AP and tons of Athletics. But once you have stealth to 4 or so, you can decide to raise AP via MIND attributes (ignoring the skills) and raise Strength and Athletics and Brawling together (leaving Dex, firearms and stealth alone for a while). You get a good brawler, faster. But this style is only for those who plan on never letting the opposition get an attack in, because low dex is bad for defense. It requires developing your personal skills at playing turn based combat games --- i.e. implants, armour and XP points aren't going to help you here, you need to practice fighting a lot if this is hard for you.

And Predator Drones are still going to be a horror for you. Of course if you have a Sniper Ally who is guaranteed to be able to shoot them down before they can hurt you, this build can still work well. Otherwise -- well I've lost a lot of chars this way.

[dracon]

I've just started Nomad Cyber Sword - he has 1 Strength with athletics 3 and brawl 4 - and Dex3. Body 1. Then... its perfect material for sniper. Just athletics to 5, and then slowly dex and body. From how exp is spent it seems I better keep strength at 1 and put 3x exp in brawl and some athletics. And then decent dex.

I've selected custom difficulty, with everything on max exept starting resources and no death penalty - because I want to start faster and experiment a lot - not that I intend on dying, I just don't like idea of losing everything by some silly click or accident.

I've also noticed that its quite hard to buy anything on hard economy. Even basic armor for 5.7k with +4 dodge.

I just realized I have no clue about some aspects of mechanics.

1. How does evade/take cover works? What skills/attributes are used?
2. Is for hitting opponent only brawl/firearms important from your skills/attributes?
3. How is critical damage calculated - is it just luck or some skills are affecting it?
4. Which skills are used to decide escaping from combat? Is it ONLY stealth? What about avoiding encounters?
5. Where is intimidate used?
6. How is initiative calculated?
7. What is affected by MP of 10 - is it just AP? How much?
8. When that gas erupts, what skills are used in run away option (only athletics?) and which ones in hiding option (only intimidate?)?
9. And last one, how is damage calculated in relation to skills, i.e. does firearm skill affects damage, with power as maximum?

Sorry for so many questions, but that game is addictive I'm sitting in front of 28" monitor playing on my phone...

[grävling]

1. Athletics helps 'evade'. Stealth helps 'take cover'.
2. I think that only brawling/firearms matter. Your weapon's accuracy matters a lot, too.
3. I don't know what determines a critical. But you can buy an implant at Saytek's in Dorchester that helps.
4. Athletics and Stealth both help in getting away, because how far away you are from the bad guys when you try to escape matters a lot. And with good athletics, you can run farther from them before you try. I think that stealth is the only one used for avoiding encounters, but I could be wrong there. It is the primary one at any rate.
5. Intimidate is used in threaten missions. Also, if you win a fight, and loot the corpse, and successfully intimidate the passersby, you will get less heat. You get less heat from delivery missions with higher intimidate, too. When you have the choice between 'run away' and 'take shelter' -- when terrorists blow up the dome, for instance -- people with good initimidate should try to take shelter. People with good athletics should run.
6. I do not think that Cory has ever released the formula for how initiative works.
7. I think that higher MP effects how you hack as well, but I am not sure of that. If your MP is 9 you get 0 or 1 extra AP. If it is 10 ore more you get 0, 1 or 2 extra MP.
8. I think that run away is only athletics and hiding is only intimidate, but I am not certain about this.
9. It's really complicated. Power is how much damage it can do, max, if all goes great for you and you are shooting somebody with no armour. Penetration is how well it goes through the armour of those who are wearing some, or have dermal implants. Hard armour soaks up some damage. Soft armour either doesn't at all, or doesn't do a very good job of it. If your enemy has decent defensive scores you may miss altogether, or do less damage when you hit. Firearm and brawling skill count, as does the accuracy of your weapon. See the helpfile for more details.

[dracon]

Well, thank you very much. I was looking for things like if athletics is used sometimes with dex, or brawl with strength. Its important if I would like to leave str or dex at 1.

I can underestand now that only Cory could shine some light on some of those mechanics (i.e. initiative or criticals) if time allows.

[grävling]

Feb 16, 2013 20:20:50 GMT -5 dracon said:

Well, thank you very much. I was looking for things like if athletics is used sometimes with dex, or brawl with strength. Its important if I would like to leave str or dex at 1.

I can underestand now that only Cory could shine some light on some of those mechanics (i.e. initiative or criticals) if time allows.

Leaving anything at 1 is a very bad idea, except for hacking (if you do not plan on doing any) or electronics (because only medkits care, as far as I know, and you need quite a bit before it makes a difference).

[dracon]

Actually, after reading helpfile again I found lots of info I haven't seen before. It looks like stealth is used for defence on long range (what is long range?) and dex on medium and short (what is medium range?). It looks like attributes are not used except dexterity and body. So only brawl, firearms, stealth, body and dexterity are used for combat. I still don't know about 3, 6 and 9 in relation to 3

[Cory Trese]

Criticals are calculated with Perception, Intelligence, attack skill, target defense and high Penetration weapons.

Initiative seems to have been deleted from the help file somehow a few releases ago. I'll fix that tonight.

Initiative = AP + Initiative Bonus + D10-1 (hey, just like World's Edge!)

Initiative Bonus is based on high MP, Cyberware and Nanoware (hidden in current Cyber Knights.)

Long Range is above 4 tiles.

Action point base is equal to your (Dexterity + Intelligence + Perception) / 2 + 3

So saying "only brawl, firearms [...] are used for combat" is going to yield non-optimal results, you'll end up with lower overall damage and actions per turn with that type of belief.