About to finish the Foundry, the tedium is getting to me. Guide me to the fun parts

[Leechmonger]

I just killed The Beast, that quest was boring as fuck (even with looking stuff up online). All the problems I have with the game are getting amplified the longer I play it:

1. Game doesn't respect the player's time. Respawning trash mobs, slow walking speed, inconveniently placed shops, timed merchant stock, lockpicking/hacking progress bars (with shit loot to boot), fetch quests, etc.
2. Combat is easy and devoid of thought. I'm running a sniper/assault rifle build. I sneak into combat, snipe one enemy, then proceed to burst down everyone else with the assault rifle (with the occasional aimed sniper shot). In the rare instances where this doesn't work I simply place a trap by a door and kill the enemies one by one.
4. My character has stopped evolving. There's no crucial feats left to take or equipment to buy/loot that would change my playstyle. It's just gonna be bigger damage numbers from here on out, I feel.
3. Story is completely forgettable so far.

So far my favorite areas have been Depot A, the bottom level of GMS Compound, and the underpassages near SGS (when looting mattered). I also liked the Abram quests. I loathe this game's caves (I'm gonna have a fun time in Deep Caverns).

What optional quests/locations should I check out before beelining for the game's ending?

 

[NotAGolfer]

Agree on everything except for the tedious combat part.
Sure, your playstyle doesn't really change much when you finally have all the nice feats and gadgets, but playing on hard difficulty forced me to mix up combat approaches especially when facing larger enemy groups.
There might be more fun builds than the assault rifle one though.

But yeah, it gets repetitive and I couldn't bring myself to finish it either. Will maybe try another playthrough later, but only with that speed hack

 

[Darth Roxor]

there are no fun parts

 

[Excidium II]

that's the game. shrug

 

[toro]

1. Game doesn't respect the player's time.

...

(I'm gonna have a fun time in Deep Caverns).

I'm sure you will.

 

[Leechmonger]

I'm sure you will.

At this point half my motivation is seeing if DC is as bad as people claim it is.

 

[Ivan]

I put my playthrough on the backburner once I saw what the Deep Caverns was all about

 

[Excidium II]

Deep caverns was severely rebalanced to be less punishing, like most difficult content in this game.

It's still not very good quest area but at least it's mostly painless.

Also the name is a bit misleading, it isn't only caves, but ruined compounds and abandoned stations. Some unique enviroments too.

 

[toro]

Deep caverns was severely rebalanced to be less punishing, like most difficult content in this game.

Do you know what was changed?

 

[Excidium II]

Deep caverns was severely rebalanced to be less punishing, like most difficult content in this game.

Do you know what was changed?

More ammo and consumables there and the debuff stacks slower from what I remember.

I only got there after the nerf so I dunno if it was that tough or people just sucked at char building.

 

[Leechmonger]

Well that's disappointing. I was hoping at least one of your fuckers would stand up for this game and show me the light. Alas, no.

 

[Excidium II]

It's not like we can make you enjoy the game.

 

[Leechmonger]

You're not wrong.

 

[SniperHF]

I quit in the deep caverns because it was bsb but really the entire upper underrail save some of the lore bits from the Institute were crap too. I think Core City has some worthwhile content up to the point where you have to do arena fights (retarded progression trigger btw). Quit once you hit that part.

 

[epeli]

Deep caverns was severely rebalanced to be less punishing, like most difficult content in this game.

Do you know what was changed?

Hm, let me think if I can remember the gist of DC changes from first beta tests onwards. There might be some minor spoilers so I'll just spoiler the entire list. Most of these happened gradually after the release, within the first few hotfix patches.

Spoiler

- Six, Faceless commander & Leo dialogs extended with more hints
- More stuff in both DC shops
- Added few missing base components and more ammo to loot
- Faceless attitude calculation tweaks
- Creeping Dread / Eye of Tchort debuff nerfed (IIRC this might've already been in 1.0.0.0)
- Creeping Dread / Eye of Tchort duration reduced
- Tchortling numbers severely reduced
- Most DC creature HP/resistances were lowered
- Some DC creature AI improvements
- Burrowers outside Arke no longer respawn
- Arke timers increased for IRIS challenges and bot manufacturing
- Mutagen puzzle hints (the INM log on mutagens) was clarified
- The bossfight went from impossible to easy (less HP on eye & tentacles, weaker resistances, no immunity to dismantling effects, out-of-combat mental damage increases slowly and is capped, mutagen tanks are easier to destroy)

 

[Black Angel]

Foundry questline for the Beast is probably the only one questline that's very tiresome (not counting the Lost Train quest for Rail Crossing pre-patch, and maybe other quests I missed on the Protectorate/Free Drones since my very first playthrough I missed either of them, and my second current playthrough is being halt by real life stuff), so I imagine you came out of it pissed off, because you have to go back to Ezra for unnecessarily the second time. It baffles me why can't we immediately ask Ezra for that bait, instead of: having to go to him for info->back to the Mayor only to be told to fuck off->ask Bernard about Gloria->and then finally go back to Ezra for the bait. Unless I remembered it wrong, that sequence is too tedious and on the same level of the pre-patched Lost Train quest. epeli has there been any suggestion to improve that part of the Foundry questline in the Underrail forum? If not, I would like to make a thread myself.

1. Game doesn't respect the player's time. Respawning trash mobs, slow walking speed, inconveniently placed shops, timed merchant stock, lockpicking/hacking progress bars (with shit loot to boot), fetch quests, etc.

Use Cheat Engine, the speedhack in particular. Or maybe craft high quality Tabi Boots. Solves nearly all of these problems.

4. My character has stopped evolving. There's no crucial feats left to take or equipment to buy/loot that would change my playstyle. It's just gonna be bigger damage numbers from here on out, I feel.

Have you tried playing on Oddity mode? I personally thought the Oddity mode was surprisingly well-paced (though I kind of play it with a mindset fixed on exploration and subterfuge).

3. Story is completely forgettable so far.

I just realized you place #4 before #3.

What optional quests/locations should I check out before beelining for the game's ending?

You mentioned 'Abram's' quests. Have you done the

Spoiler

Oculites questline

? There's also the Free Drones vs. Protectorate questline. If you haven't done it, any of the faction quest in Core City (though, sadly it suffered the "inconveniently placed shops" you mentioned the most, despite the fact that the shops were placed on one floor-two areas), so you can immediately launch yourself to the

Spoiler

Insitute of Tchort, which kind of quite a major lore-dump of the game

, though it's sad that it's one of the only place I know that had things going on in them, aside from

Spoiler

Fort Apogee

.

 

[epeli]

epeli has there been any suggestion to improve that part of the Foundry questline in the Underrail forum? If not, I would like to make a thread myself.

Looks like it's been tweaked already, but the changes are not yet live. The upcoming new content will bring plenty of improvements to old content as well.

 

[Leechmonger]

Thanks for the info, Black Angel. I stumbled upon the speedhack around the time I made this thread, it certainly helps the game's pacing. I'm already using the oddity system. I was level 16 when I beat the Arena and I was 17 by the time I finished Gauntlet. Both were very easy with the exception of the last enemy in Arena who was largely an exercise in RNG. Beat him using the taser, microshrapnel 7.62mm ammo, and maybe a flashbang that stunned him and not me. I reloaded so many times it's hard to remember the specifics.

I'll continue doing the Quicksilver quests (done the Foundry one so far) and start on the Core City ones.

 

[Daedalos]

epeli has there been any suggestion to improve that part of the Foundry questline in the Underrail forum? If not, I would like to make a thread myself.

Looks like it's been tweaked already, but the changes are not yet live. The upcoming new content will bring plenty of improvements to old content as well.

When is the new content coming?

 

[epeli]

When is the new content coming?

 

[Black Angel]

Looks like it's been tweaked already, but the changes are not yet live. The upcoming new content will bring plenty of improvements to old content as well.

Then I assume I don't have to make a new Suggestion thread, then?

Thanks for the info, Black Angel. I stumbled upon the speedhack around the time I made this thread, it certainly helps the game's pacing. I'm already using the oddity system. I was level 16 when I beat the Arena and I was 17 by the time I finished Gauntlet. Both were very easy with the exception of the last enemy in Arena who was largely an exercise in RNG. Beat him using the taser, microshrapnel 7.62mm ammo, and maybe a flashbang that stunned him and not me. I reloaded so many times it's hard to remember the specifics.

I'll continue doing the Quicksilver quests (done the Foundry one so far) and start on the Core City ones.

I haven't did the Arena to its' conclusion, and never even tried the Gauntlet. From what I've heard you need shitload of initiative so you can get first turn against the last enemy. Also, there's still quite some level then, just enough to last you until maybe before you enter Deep Cavern or right after few quests there.

 

[an Administrator]

Oh man, Foundry was the most tiresome part of Underrail. Nearly was about to make me give up on the whole game.
The most fun part was Core City for me.
Also it's much better to play on Oddity mode. Game was designed about that system originally.

 

[Black Angel]

At least Foundry was actually entirely optional. Sure, you could argue that you might need to visit it for more info on Cornell, and also to get another +1 point with the Faceless, but right when you can finally board the train, you could just go to Core City and start hunting for Cornell right away.

 

[Bubbles]

Also it's much better to play on Oddity mode. Game was designed about that system originally.

Oddity was introduced as an "alternate xp system" over a year after the first public release. But I think it's the preferred system of both the devs and the players.

 

[roshan]

Also it's much better to play on Oddity mode. Game was designed about that system originally.

Oddity was introduced as an "alternate xp system" over a year after the first public release. But I think it's the preferred system of both the devs and the players.

I find Oddity to be unnatural though. I think it's OK for one playthrough but then feels pretty gimmicky afterwards. Like you enter a new town and then suddenly gain a level and a half by rooting through barrels of trash.