Enhanced Learning feels like a trap skill

[LinkR87]

Everyone on the internet seems to be praising this skill like it's the be all end all, but I'm not convinced... 30% extra exp sounds nice, but it would also need to pay for itself to make any net profit. Has anyone actually done the math to see that even being the case? And even if you break even, that's skill points wasted in something that isn't even contributing to anything. Am I crazy?

I'm not even sure if Enhanced Map was a worthwhile investment. Whatever it's adding to my map feels minimal at best.

[V I D A L]

I donno. I aimed for that and got that whole skill tree complete because of that skill. Can't confirm if it paid off or not, but I got it as earlier as possible. That kind of skill is a rule of thumb in any RPG. You always go for that first to maxminse end game level.

[Dan_The_Noob]

considering its 1 of 10 skill lines. which means it makes 30% of 9 skill lines go faster, you get about 28 skills from it, an 18 skills profit.

[Ren O'the Blade]

Originally posted by Dan_The_Noob:

considering its 1 of 10 skill lines. which means it makes 30% of 9 skill lines go faster, you get about 28 skills from it, an 18 skills profit.

This is not exactly how this works. The skill costs 10k experience to earn, 4k if you planned on getting the other 2 skills in the tree anyway. So at 10k, you would need to earn about 33.3k or so exp after purchasing it JUST to break even and another 3.3k before you actually get an extra skill out of it. Since EXP does not increase per level like in a real RPG, the value of this skill remains static, unlike other RPGs that the cost to next level goes up every level, often times making the skill an actual trap. In reality it likely WILL give extra skills before you finish the game, but at the cost of delaying other, possibly more beneficial skills early in. So I do not feel it is trap, but someone would really need to do an in depth dive to fully check out it's value. If you do not want most of the skills in the game anyway, skip it, if you want every skill, you likely will need it. However if you want the best skills as soon as possible, it may greatly delay those skill acquisitions till MUCH later than you would like.

However if you want the 1st 2 nodes of deduction anyway, then it drops down to only 4k exp or 4 skill points and that itself is makes it worth it IMO. Which is why I am rushing it. I prefer icons on my map as a quality of life factor.

[Moderator Abuse]

OCP disks
You will find them

[Jeron]

It's either the first skill you go for, or the last. It's a massive profit if you take it straight away, but you have to be an explorer. If you just rush through story just get the combat ones.

It's alot more than 30%, you get up to 50% more from notes.
A note gives you 100xp, so that's 150xp + 30% from everything.
Completing a main quest is 1000xp, a side objective is 250xp and there's usually a handful.

Without it you get an average of 2 skillpoints per main mission. With it, 4.

All it is, is a slow start, but then you level up super fast. And the map enhancement is good for finding more loot that gives xp. You really need to explore and read notes and pick up crime evidence as much as you can.

Me personally i'm avoiding focus and engineering and combat.

Deduction, Psychology, Vitality and Armor are the best ones in my opinion.
For XP, good ending, Shield and Ricochet.

edit: the weapon dmg i increase through the auto-9 mods. With the chipset that has autoloader and 4 dmg nodes. I can increase my dmg with 72%. This is from the 2nd mission, pretty early in the game, faster than you can take the 50% if you max out combat let's say.

[Paganini]

Originally posted by Jeron:

. And the map enhancement is good for finding more loot that gives xp. You really need to explore and read notes and pick up crime evidence as much as you can.

I took it because I didn't feel like searching the area. It was definitely worth it; I would have missed a lot.

[recursor]

Short answer: Yes, there is sufficient XP over the course of the game that the investment is worth it. It's not spelled out, but the notes 50% bonus applies to scanning as well, though that only stacks additively with the 30% bonus. So notes grant 180 XP instead of 100 and every item scanned 18 XP instead of 10.

If you are exhausting the XP sources in the game, the biggest variance will come from how you order your activities in the first trip downtown and if you gain Deduction 10 before the post-slaughterhouse evaluation. If you do:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3080830438

[Lardo]

Originally posted by Jeron:

Deduction, Psychology, Vitality and Armor are the best ones in my opinion.

Psychology is totally useless, definitely not worth the investment. Getting the best ending is pretty intuitive, you don't need any of the dialogue bonuses to figure out the best ones. With a few checkpoint restarts, I figured out the best dialogue options on my first playthrough.

[Lardo]

Originally posted by LinkR87:

Everyone on the internet seems to be praising this skill like it's the be all end all, but I'm not convinced... 30% extra exp sounds nice, but it would also need to pay for itself to make any net profit. Has anyone actually done the math to see that even being the case?

You don't need to do any math in this case, just trust that the devs are not total morons. The game clearly has a fixed amount of xp that you can earn, so calculating it is really easy. Besides, the same system was present in Terminator Resistance and they didn't screw it up there, so, it stands to reason they know what they're doing.
Also, as it was already pointed out, there's also a 50% xp gain from notes, so that every note grants 180 xp instead of 100. Since the level up requirement is constant (1000 xp) one doesn't have to be a mathematician to predict that it will pay for itself really fast.

[Desperado]

You can't quite max out the entire skill tree, the highest I've seen is about 60-70, or about 6 or 7 out of the 8 total skills. The last playthrough I did, I only leveled up Deduction to 7 or 8, and pretty late at that, only putting points in incrementally as I thought I needed them, and I wound up with about 55-60 perk points. Since the highest skill checks that you'll want for ideal outcomes I've found in the game are only 6s and 7s, I personally didn't find it necessary to try and max everything out, excepting the most useful combat skills of Armor and Vitality - that, plus the spread I already had made combat mostly trivial, even against the final boss.

[LinkR87]

Originally posted by V I D A L:

I donno. I aimed for that and got that whole skill tree complete because of that skill. Can't confirm if it paid off or not, but I got it as earlier as possible. That kind of skill is a rule of thumb in any RPG. You always go for that first to maxminse end game level.

It is in a lot of RPGs, but it is more often than not actually a fools gold skill when you actually crunch the numbers. This game however does break the mold from your traditional RPG, so it's worth the re-evaluation.

Originally posted by Lardo:

Originally posted by Jeron:

Deduction, Psychology, Vitality and Armor are the best ones in my opinion.

Psychology is totally useless, definitely not worth the investment. Getting the best ending is pretty intuitive, you don't need any of the dialogue bonuses to figure out the best ones. With a few checkpoint restarts, I figured out the best dialogue options on my first playthrough.

I'm not even sure what to make of Psychology. I still don't really know what Citizen Trust is as a game play mechanic. That and the last skill in it, the description conveys zero useful info to me. I can't even theorize what the hell it actually does, nor can I find much info on it either. Don't have time to bring it up to repeat it exactly, but something about "main characters."

[Jeron]

Originally posted by LinkR87:

Originally posted by V I D A L:

I donno. I aimed for that and got that whole skill tree complete because of that skill. Can't confirm if it paid off or not, but I got it as earlier as possible. That kind of skill is a rule of thumb in any RPG. You always go for that first to maxminse end game level.

It is in a lot of RPGs, but it is more often than not actually a fools gold skill when you actually crunch the numbers. This game however does break the mold from your traditional RPG, so it's worth the re-evaluation.

Originally posted by Lardo:

Psychology is totally useless, definitely not worth the investment. Getting the best ending is pretty intuitive, you don't need any of the dialogue bonuses to figure out the best ones. With a few checkpoint restarts, I figured out the best dialogue options on my first playthrough.

I'm not even sure what to make of Psychology. I still don't really know what Citizen Trust is as a game play mechanic. That and the last skill in it, the description conveys zero useful info to me. I can't even theorize what the hell it actually does, nor can I find much info on it either. Don't have time to bring it up to repeat it exactly, but something about "main characters."

Public Trust is how much people like you, the voters basicly. Like when you issue a ticket it lowers, and if you give a warning it raises (in most cases). And with double the public trust earned you can make 'wrong' choices without consequences much more often.
It's the last skill that's really important, you basicly can't get a bad rep with anyone anymore. It's OP.

[Jazman2k]

Deduction first, then the others. It does make a huge difference.

[Lardo]

Originally posted by LinkR87:

That and the last skill in it, the description conveys zero useful info to me. I can't even theorize what the hell it actually does, nor can I find much info on it either. Don't have time to bring it up to repeat it exactly, but something about "main characters."

Yeah, that's because it's BS and doesn't make a difference, if you pick the right conversation choices and serve public trust, which is easy. The way I understand it, there's a point system behind the scenes that gives you certain outcomes when you pass certain thresholds, psychology gives you bonus points, so that you can ♥♥♥♥ up more and still get the best outcome.

[colours (⌐■_■)]

I put the first half a dozen points into engineering on my first playthrough, thinking I would find goodies inside of those safes scattered throughout the city.

Don't be like me. It never felt worth it getting inside a safe. I, because I am famously stupid, thought that there would be a note with a new side quest or something in there, not just... more stolen watches