An FAQ thread (updated 1.1)

[Killer Bnuuy]

What is the leveling system like?
There isn't a leveling system. You find particular items, called Stimpacks, which increase one of the few stats - HP, Agility, and Aim. There is no XP.

Can I build stuff or upgrade stuff?
No. You have a makeshift "home base" aboard an invaded space vessel, and have the ability to buy stuff between missions from a replicator Nice touch with the System Shock 2 ValueRep station, by the way, organize team equips, and talk with people for extra information (which can lead to side missions). You have to scavenge or purchase your gear, and this can be done by recycling gear you do not need. You can also find secret gear by doing some random stuff. For an easy piece, admire the shooting targets, and complete the shooting range.

If I don't level and I don't build, how do I get stronger?
You find better weapons, gear, and the aforementioned stimpacks. These items (barring stims) go by a simple naming convention: MK-1, MK-2, etc. Each one also has a specific niche- armors, for example, can be scout (increase in speed, less armor), or tank (fewer shields, but high armor and increase in HP). The stimpacks, however, are rare- you have to decide what you want to enhance and on who. You also have to decide who will use what weapons and armor you find, leading to a lot of gear based prioritizing. Correction: I've located some MK-2 stimpacks.

EDIT: Some of the same weapons can have slight variances in damage output. I've yet to see this for armors, and can only make assumptions on things like critical rate variance- these critical rates are not listed on weapon stats, and I believe these crit rates are further modified by character stats like aiming anyway.

EDIT 2: If you use over five stimpacks on a character, it can have nasty effects. I haven't run into these, but the devs say they are there. This further focuses prioritization and niche-building if your upgrades are limited, which is nice.

Is there perma-death?
No. Your characters will get knocked out and be out of that battle phase. If you finish combat, all the knocked out members will be revived with 1 hp (there can still be another battle phase, and they can be knocked out again). If you don't, you can still try again from the home base area. There is a storyline reason for this, too, so I won't go into it.

How does armor work?
There are a couple different things here. One is armor, which is your usual damage mitigation in the form of a percentage. The other is shielding, which is on a per-armor basis. Shields are like bonus HP on top of your regular HP, and they will recharge after a set amount of turns (again, this is based on the suit your character is wearing). You can replenish shielding with batteries, which can be scavenged or bought. Unfortunately, the enemies can have armor and shields too, and they too will recharge if you do not pay attention to them.

What is the in-game currency?
There isn't money, as it's a survival game, but there is "energy." Energy can be acquired (from what I've noticed) by killing enemies, and recycling gear you do not want or need from the inventory menu. You can then use energy between missions, powering replicators to create items like ammo, meds, and batteries, each with their own cost on that energy reserve. Weapons and armor generally have to be found rather than purchased. Recycling can be done in the field, freeing up inventory space.

How does movement work?
Out of combat, you can select any individual character to move, or move them all around as a group. Individual selection can go by the number keys (1-4 in most cases) or mouse clicks, and since each character has their own limited inventory, you can move some characters to pick up stuff while leaving other characters with open inventory slots. Right clicking will move the group as a whole, with whomever you have currently selected ending up "in front," and on the tile you right-clicked. When combat begins, your characters have 2 "AP" which they can spend on activities such as movement, reloading, and shooting. Movement distance is based on agility, and you'll get more distance per AP the higher your agility. Finally, if you encounter an enemy during the free-move phase, all your characters will enter combat where they are located. if you have them spread out all over the place or set up in cover zones to open a door, they will be forced to use AP once combat starts.

how does shooting work?
A simple percentage system based on distance and the aiming stat. There is a neat mechanic here, however. Remaining stationary allows you to use both AP during a turn to fire- significantly increasing accuracy. However, this means the character is entirely focused on aiming and cannot move. 1ap shots are like 'snap shots' with a lower accuracy, but you can do two of them per turn. The percentage of a successful shot will increase dramatically with something like a sniper rifle, as your character is taking very careful aim; with a shotgun, if you're within a certain range, you can fire two snap shots at very high accuracy because it's kind of hard to miss with buckshot like that.

Different weapons, too, have different ranges and tricks. Range is the big one. Assault rifles, for example, lose accuracy outside a certain distance. Sniper Rifles seem to lose accuracy within a certain "bubble" around your character (imagine using a scope on something directly in your face), but deal more damage than their stats advertise should you hit within that range. Shotguns have a higher crit rate, but a nasty drop-off in accuracy over distance.

how does close range combat work?
If an enemy is within a cell adjacent to your character, you can melee attack them. As of patch 1.1, each weapon has a unique melee attack value that can vary slightly for each weapon. Melee attacks also never miss, and cost only 1ap.

What about reaction shots? I loved abusing those!
Reaction shots are there. It is called a "retaliate" state. What this does is places your character in a sort of guard, where if they are attacked, they... well, retaliate. They do not trigger on enemy movement or attacks focused on other characters, however. It also appears they use however many AP the character had to dedicate- in other words, if the character had 1ap when they started the retaliate state, they will fire a shot with an accuracy of 1ap. With 2ap, they will have a full accuracy shot.

How does the inventory work?
Each character has limited space. In general, 8 slots (barring one character lovingly nicknamed "Mule," who has 12). Ammo, grenades, medkits and other supplies are all limited, and take up a slot (so yes, you have to plan for hauling ammo and grenades with you). Weapons and armor, even when equipped, will take up a slot. Outside of missions, your homebase has a "safe" of 50 slots in which anything can be stored. When purchasing items with energy through the replicators, they will appear in this safe for you to distribute to your roster. You can also transfer items from one character to another, with the "give to" command- If on a mission, however, you can only do so between the characters on that mission. Other items like medkits can be used on other characters, if the using character is in range (generally 1 tile).

This soundtrack kicks ***! When can we buy it?
Go to your steam folder -> Commonapps -> Halfway -> music folder. everything is right there in OGG format. Cheers.

Is this like x-com?
It is similar, but no. It is more of a narrative rather than simple skirmishing with a storyline mission here and there. It is similar, however, in that you will have a 95% hit percentage and miss, upon which the enemy will countersnipe with the equivelant of a handgun while they're so far away they are considered off screen. This isn't nearly as bad as x-com, however, as the enemies do seem to follow more reliable accuracy and hit rules that the player also follows. also, the aliens don't always get a free move if you spot them, since you've taken them by surprise. There are situations where they WILL get a turn before you do, but it's reasonable and makes sense.

Other items such as the cover system, reaction shots, and grenade usage are definitely inspired by the recent x-com.

When will they add more stuff? How well is the game supported?
No announcement on DLC, but a game editor is coming. It's more polished versions of the tools the devs used during the games creation. They have also added extra items and weapons with the addition of patch 1.1.

The game is also well supported, with bugs seeming to be discovered and patched out within a day or even less, but only as they are discovered. It's only a few guys doing it, but they're still doing better than a lot of large companies.

TL;DR : sum it up for me, cap'n
It's a squad based system shock 2 with elements of x-com. Try it, they buy it.

feel free to add your own questions and answers below.

[BlackjackGT]

Do stimpacks provide a temporary or permanent stats boost?

Great idea for a thread !:-) Devs should STICKY this thread imho.

[Meadow]

Originally posted by BlackjackGT:

Do stimpacks provide a temporary or permanent stats boost?

Great idea for a thread !:-) Devs should STICKY this thread imho.

They provide a permanent boost. However gear provides a temporary boost until you un-equip it. As for the damage deflection and stuff it can take an x amount of turns to recharge, you can recharge immediately with shield boosters.

[seminus]

Done :)
Some more from us.

Finishing Level when there is no visual exit and you clicked away the message box:
You can click on the "arrow" like icon in the top right corner that appears after you finished a mission.

Stimpacks and their functionality:
Stims are one way to increase permanently an ability of one of your characters. But be aware if you use more then 5 it can go wrong. Suits have some ability boost too.
There are some really rare super stimpacks in the game that increase all your abilities at once.

Can I move the whole team at once?
Yes you can during none combat situation: Right click on the tile you want to have the team moved to.

Why do my character miss all the time even with snipers?
The idea here is that a beginner character has to use both AP to make a precise shot, especially with the sniper rifle. So select a target without moving your character and right-click on him to increase your aiming and use both AP.
Later on when your abilities are increase you can hit them better even with only one AP.


The idea of the weapon balancing:
Longrange:

• Range 20 tiles+,
  
• high crit chance
  
• highest damage per shot.
  
• Only really advanced character can do 2 shots in one round. All other have to use 2AP for aiming.
  
  Medium range:
  
• Range ca. 15 tiles,
  
• low crit chance
  
• low damage per shot
  
• medium base aiming. Second AP only gives a medium aim bonus.
  
  Short Range:
  
• Range 4-5 tiles
  
• High crit change
  
• high damge per shot
  
• even beginner can hit a target twice with this gun in under 4 tiles. But eats your ammo for breakfast.
  
  Hope this helps abit. More to come.

[BlackjackGT]

Cool. Just for that, and the 2nd stability patch, I went ahead and bought it just now. :) I'll add questions later if I can think of anything.
===============

Is there a way to re-center the camera view after trying to adjust it manually? When I use the w,a,s,d keys to adjust camera view, it always seems to go too far north or too far south (just tapping a key once sends the camera view way too far in one direction) and I can't get it re-centered over my unit(s) without moving/jiggering characters (which seems to eventually re-enable the auto-camera).

Overall I dig the early game, just the camera adjusting feels a bit wonky. :)

[Beast King]

To admire the shoting range targets and complete the shoting range is NOT the first piece ^^
Its acctualy on the very first map, a shotgun prototype ^^

[Dohi64]

> Try it, they buy it.

how does the first part work exactly? will you guys make a demo at some point?

[Reefpirate]

I have a question about melee combat:

It seems you can hit an adjacent enemy without using ammo by doing a melee attack. How is this damage calculated? From weapon's base damage? So are sniper rifles just as good for melee as shotguns?

[Killer Bnuuy]

Originally posted by Reefpirate:

I have a question about melee combat:

It seems you can hit an adjacent enemy without using ammo by doing a melee attack. How is this damage calculated? From weapon's base damage? So are sniper rifles just as good for melee as shotguns?

Seems like melee scales with the weapon in my experience. Added to FAQ
Weapons were given melee stats which have slight variance in patch 1.1.

[BlackjackGT]

Not really questions, thought you might want to note inFAQ:
-When you complete an area, not only are all fallen characters "rezzed" at 1 HP, all characters' shields are restored to 100%.

-When you exit a mission, if your group's returned to home base, everyone's health is reset to 100%. This is something to consider if you're nearing the end of a mission with wounded characters, and confident exiting will take you back to base (not the case on multi-part missions) -- best to save the medkits and just take advantage of the health reset at home base.

[Vegan]

What exactly does each person's passive and active do?

[Killer Bnuuy]

Originally posted by Vegan:

What exactly does each person's passive and active do?

You can mouse over each character's skills in the inventory menu at your homebase to find this out.

I'll split this up as best I can, however, and post it for comepleteness sake.

Morten
Active - Steady Shot - Fires a shot from a rifle that will not miss.
Passive - Rifle Expert - Increases accuracy with assault rifle type weapons.

Linda
Active - Medic - Fully restore Linda's health. (only Linda's)
Passive - Medic - Healing kits are 33% more effective when used by Linda.

Mule
Active - Headshot - If the shot hits, it will be a critical hit.
Passive - Strong - Increased Inventory capacity (12 slots, other characters have 8).

Josh
Active - Shield Overload - Instantly destroy an enemy shield, no matter how strong.
Passive - Fast Reloader - No AP usage when reloading.

Schaffer
Active - Radar - Shows all the enemies on the map for a short time, even if they aren't within eyesight of any character.
Passive - Suit Expert - Increased shield capacity (33%).

Thirteen
Active - Teleport - Teleport anywhere Thirteen can see.
Passive - Martial Arts Expert - Melee damage increased by 33% (a LOT stronger than it sounds.)

Jenna
Active - Berserk - Fire a bullet at every enemy in eyesight, using up the entire magazine in the process.
Passive - Sniper Rifle Expert - increase accuracy with sniper rifles by 33%.

Nia
Active - Paralyze - bind an enemy so they cannot act for several turns.
Passive - Regeneration - heal 1hp every 2 turns in combat.
--

It's important to note that Schaffer and Thirteen's actives were originally swapped. That is to say, Thirteen had Radar, and Schaffer had teleport. Now, Thirteen can negate distance issues for his melee attacks by simply porting in, while Schaffer can provide more of a support role rather than simply teleporting out of a bad situation for himself.

[Vegan]

Ahh, that makes sense (and I forgot, they are in the hover over text)....thanks!!

[Godwin]

"There is a storyline reason for this, too, so I won't go into it."

You said that when talking about what happens when you lose the entire squad, but I have just completed the game (came looking for info about a sequal actually), and I have no idea what the reason could be. Did I miss some story or something by not ever losing?

Can you elaborate? (behind spoiler tags)
Thanks!

[Killer Bnuuy]

Originally posted by Godwin:

"There is a storyline reason for this, too, so I won't go into it."

You said that when talking about what happens when you lose the entire squad, but I have just completed the game (came looking for info about a sequal actually), and I have no idea what the reason could be. Did I miss some story or something by not ever losing?

Can you elaborate? (behind spoiler tags)
Thanks!

If the squad were to "die," they are instead teleported to the medical bay in their current home base for healing as a panic button. It uses their implants to do so. The *old* implants, which do not have the "corruption" present inside them that has turned the rest of the crew. The last part is the key storyline component I was referring to, as just about every crew member with the new implants was turned.

[Godwin]

Originally posted by Pony of Diamonds:

If the squad were to "die," they are instead teleported to the medical bay in their current home base for healing as a panic button. It uses their implants to do so. The *old* implants, which do not have the "corruption" present inside them that has turned the rest of the crew. The last part is the key storyline component I was referring to, as just about every crew member with the new implants was turned.

Right, I remember now, thanks.
You unlocked this at some point I now recall, when speaking with one of your members one of them mentions this. I forgot, probably because I never saw it in action.