Game's difficulty starts to piss me off

[Elgroscriss]

Im aware that this is a Hardcore game, made to be difficult and not holding your hand but god ...

I started a new char for the 4th time, trying diff builds.
The most successful was my psion even though the first part with the outposts has been a pain in the ass with my low Health pool. But at least I made it through by exploiting the lame AI and game mechanic. Then I do the second quest, along with finding Newton (which involved killing Azuritaes bugs). All went well but I still wanted to start over with a more gun oriented char.

So I made a new one, focusing on guns and melee. I even exploited the tutorial, being able to keep the stuff you get from it. In that runthrough, the merchants and loot were great...got nice stuff, a 7.62 gun early on, a serrated combat knife and all ...
The outpost quest went super fast, super easy and I was like "Hell yea, this is the build that works".
Then I reach the quest with finding Newton. I reach the first Azutirae bug, telling myself, "Peace of cake".
I approach it, hit it from behind with my serrated knife and ....do 2 damage.
Now im like "uuuuh, ok, maybe I really hit badly, lemme try again"
0 damage ....3 damage, 2 damage ....turn over.
Now of course, the ♥♥♥♥♥ hits me with its Psion ability ....17 ..ouch, 15 ouch ....
Okay, lemme try my 7.62mm gun then!
Shoot, point blank ....5 damage ...4 damage...
Riiiight the bug aint even 3/4 down its Health yet. I cant kill the ♥♥♥♥♥ and I know I have to fight some in groups a bit later on this same quest.

So yea, this is stupid, its the 2nd friggen quest, I cant farm, I cant get better stuff yet, and I sure cant go find Newton either with those around.

This mechanic limits the possible workable builds and its lame. Theres no way you can make the char you want, you can just make a char that works. Dont tell me to dump 3 stats in favor of puting the 3 others to 10 because thats a lame ass excuse to buff a character. If thats the only way to win this game, then too bad, Ill pass.

[A.W.S.H.]

For the record, psi beetles need to be attacked when their brains are exposed (i.e. when they open their carapaces to attack).

[Elgroscriss]

hows that possible when everytime they finish their turn, they "close" it?

[Grey]

I don't know. I am usually not that "hardcore" and I found Underrail to be quite a great game so far, due to it's similarity and immediate comfort when you loved Fallout 1/2 and the like. I even kind of screwed up my initial character, making him "meh" at most stuff.

The great thing this game offers is the possibility to just go elsewhere. In the beginning, there are around 2 ways, that can be extended upon further progression. It might end up in going a little bit back and forth, but it works. At least with the classical progression system.

Go explore the subway instead, until you can't progress anymore. Then go back in the caves. Worked for me at least.

[Elgroscriss]

Id figure you could go elsewhere, yes, but Im at my 2nd quest which simply makes me capture hoppers thingies and find newton as a bonus. I thought that I could go explore after a few more quests, not right at the beginning simply because I cant even progress anymore already.

Ill try that, but since I play "oddity", not even killing rathounds elsewhere is gonna help me so I hope Ill be able to loot oddities easily enough around GMS.

[Greep]

Originally posted by Elgroscriss:

hows that possible when everytime they finish their turn, they "close" it?

They shouldn't close it at the end of their turn :/ sounds like a bug or something. They only do that if they're forced into melee.

There's a dozen way to take out psi-beetles with a sub-optimal character, but yes, a straightforward approach won't work:

1- grenades
2- Armor penetrating bullets for the first strike
3- traps. You might be able to use bear traps without trapping skill on them.
4- They're REALLY slow. If you have room, you can hit and run them for one ranged attack and they will not be able to strike back
5- Net them, and get in melee range or corner them, though netting is easy. They will mostly harmlessly just peck at you if they are in melee range and can't run.
6-Set them on fire with fire bolts from a crossbow.
7-Drugs, baby
8-Buy a hammerer-type gun
9-Use an smg while their brain is open.
10-Use a sledgehammer ;D
11-Psi
12-Not sure you have to do the quest. You might be able to just do the hopper roundup and talk to Tanner after bret. You might have to, though.

13- Again, they have almost no movement points and retreat, so you can also unload on them, then move right up to them, and they will retreat and only have enough AP for a single psi attack. This is the usual approach.

But the short answer is if you want to make a roleplaying character rather than some diablo-style min/maxed monstrosity, just set the diff to easy and use health hypos. Easy is not really that easy.

[A.W.S.H.]

There are plenty of loot opportunities. You need to have lockpicking/hacking ready, though, to get access to all the stuff.

Originally posted by Elgroscriss:

hows that possible when everytime they finish their turn, they "close" it?

As has been said, they only shut their carapace when you corner them into a melee fight. Otherwise they keep it open all the time.

[Elgroscriss]

Your solutions are nice, thanks for taking the time, but Im so early in the game that most of those arent possible as far as I know.

Grenades? havent seen one yet and I have 0 skill in throwing which makes my throw have 10% chance to hit.
AP ammo? with my 7.62mm gun, I dont have the ressources to buy any (nor have seen any yet I think)
Traps? No skill in laying them. Im not familiar with the trap mechanic but does your char throw them or you have to lay them before the fight and hope for the bug to walk on it?
Kite them? My gun barelly scratch them ...like I said, Ive never noticed one to keep its carapace "opened"
Net them? I did once try that. My melee weapon does min 0, max 3 damage. And when the bug melees me, it does 10-15 damage to me.
Crossbow? Didnt spec into it
Hammer? I got one, but it takes 8 strenght, I have 7 (and I wanted 7 so dont tell me to restart to put it to 8 just to be able to get through this spot)

I know I can go around this problem by making a new char, putting skills elsewhere and all but its not normal that I have to create a char with specifics like that. In any other game I know (including fallout 1/2, which I played and always been successful) the build I have right now would be good, almost great. But in this one, for some reason, it doesnt seem to fit what the game wants me to be and thus, it fails. You gotta make a disfonctional char (The type of char everyone in D&D games make which is dumping Will, charisma and Int to boost Strenght, Dex and Con for a fighter) to be successful.

Oh and as a side note, the RNG is a joke. I have 95% chance to hit with my knife and still miss 5 out of 10 times.

[Grey]

Originally posted by Elgroscriss:

Id figure you could go elsewhere, yes, but Im at my 2nd quest which simply makes me capture hoppers thingies and find newton as a bonus. I thought that I could go explore after a few more quests, not right at the beginning simply because I cant even progress anymore already.

Ill try that, but since I play "oddity", not even killing rathounds elsewhere is gonna help me so I hope Ill be able to loot oddities easily enough around GMS.

Yeah okay, fair enough. I can imagine that without progression from anything but oddities it could be much tougher. Although when starting 4 times, maybe at some point you should've just chosen classic?

Never the less, just skip the psi bugs and go hunt some hounds instead. afaik they have 2 (one from alpha, one from normal) possible oddities. Unless of course you already got them all.

Imo hacking/lockpicking is mandatory too, especially when on oddity-mode since there are so many non-enemy ones as well.

Furthermore with the separated levels and the saving of damages and even status effects when leaving the area, you have some room for exploiting combat. But it sounds like you're having more of damage dealing issue.

[Greep]

Well grenades you can craft. The blueprint is expensive, the materials and skill needed are not. So if you have about 200 credits you can literally 'nade every single azuridae if you wanted ;)

You can still wield a sledgehammer with 7 str, but whether it'd be worth anything without melee skill I dunno. It will let you kill a netted azuridae, though, even without their heads shielded. You can also head on over to junkyard at the docks and buy some rathound barbecue that will let you have 8 strength.

But anyways, the game is balanced for min/maxing, but there is an easy difficulty option for if you want an average stat character. I'd restart and use that, as the game's real hard parts are not this place.

And while you don't have to min/max, putting just your offensive stat to 10, (perc for guns) would be real nice. The game is based around feats, a lot of which you will miss out if your primary offense is low. Condering some enemies have like 20 strength/con, it's not like having 10 perc makes you extraordinary, just good at something ;)

[Elgroscriss]

I didnt know I could still wield the hammer with 7 strenght though. I do have points in melee, but I use my knife. Ill try that.

[Elgroscriss]

Well I found a way to make it doable!

I did notice their carapace getting opened/closed.
You gotta approach just close enough to make it move away a bit, then it uses half its actions points to open it. If youre lucky, it wont ahve enough AP to attack so I atatck it with my gun as best i can and move again a bit towards it. So im the one being kinda kitted ..lol
But it worked. Worst case, it gets one attack on me, best case, it doesnt have enough Action Points to even do so.

[Ty Cobb]

Those Psi beetles hit pretty hard for that early in the game, especially when they group up and throw other crap at you.

If I'm going with guns then for one or two I usually try to hit them with SMG bursts from as close as I can get and hope for crits. You can get a free SMG as a reward from giving that old guy in the caves just outside the base his watch back.

For the chance to hit, more light can help a bit with shooting things. Since a molotov lights up the area your chance to hit should go up even if you miss, and if you hit then they are on fire so its a win-win. Even chucking a flare would help, and theres less chance of it blowing up in your face. Maybe throw one out before combat starts.

Also high Dex does help when rocking pistols and SMGs. The reduced AP cost for shooting is pretty useful.

[Elgroscriss]

Thing is, with my psion, those bugs were as easy as a rathound.
I figured it would be as easy with any other decent build...guess I was wrong ..lol

[Greep]

Yeah thought control damage is reduced by will (resolve). So these guys are pretty tough for non-psi.

[Qiox]

Originally posted by Elgroscriss:

hows that possible when everytime they finish their turn, they "close" it?

They will only close if you standing right beside them. The key is to not box them in. If you are using guns then either stay 5 or 6 squares away. They will not move and attack twice on their turn.

Even better is to move beside it, but leave it an opening to move away from you. It will, then stop and attack only once, leaving it's carapace open. You then move up and attack. It will move away a bit, open and attack once.

Easy peasy if you use some strategy.

It's not that this game is hard. It's that you have to actually watch exactly what is going on and plan accordingly. You cannot approach combat mindlessly.