The Outer Worlds

[mandru]

The amount of companion's stats being added to your own stats is almost completely dependent on the stats and perk selections you make.

That said the jungle of perks and stats options is a confusing mess.  Sometimes it's easy to overlook a critical side effect of a perk or stat because it's hard to spot every one of the peripheral benefits when they are unrelated to what the main stat boost you are seeking when a specific perk is being selected.

As an example Temperament level controls (as a side effect) whether or not you are receiving Healing Over Time.  If you are not at least "Good" on your point distribution the you'll need to carry chems to heal.  But there is a Vamparism perk later in the game that will heal you 15-25% for every kill you make and sets up one hit kill chained criticals which makes carrying healing chems a thing of the past.

This link is the best explanation of at least the Perk selection tree that I've been able to find.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxIel0f-62w

[Art Blade]

thank you, mandru, going to check that vid in a sec

I just came here to post something and then of course noticed that you had beaten me to it

What I checked was the max level (150) of the skills. I actually managed to distribute perks and (in-game mods, not using cheats nor 3rd-party mods) modded gear so I really hit 150 on "technical" which would allow me to recover a mod when adding a new one. And sadly so, that doesn't w0#k which I already read in-game but it was cool to see "150" That number does count in dialogue options, however. And "in the field" when repairing stuff. I even managed to get the lockpick up to over 120 but still a long road to an "earned" (as opposed to "modded") 150 virtuoso skill set.

[Art Blade]

well..

I solved that safe mystery by respec'ing my character for the sake of this, then loaded a savegame prior to doing that because really.. I don't need that. Essentially I had to spend all my points of my now level 20 character on that lockpick skill.

[Art Blade]

I'm level 21 now. From 19 to 20 it took 160,000 XP. Now it's 168,000 from 21 to 22.

And by the way that made me realise something: I haven't modded this game nor have I cheated. That's always a good sign for me. I tells me that the game is good if I don't feel the need to mod or cheat

[PZ]

Must be really good if you want the entire experience of playing the game 

If I'm playing a PC game, the cheat codes are always on the top of my list of things to do while starting a game 

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I left a comment on the video itself, wondering how you re-spec as I haven't tried that yet. So could you have just gone back to the perks machine and redistributed your skills back the way you wanted after unlocking that safe? Or is loading a save game the only way, either because you can't or it's just too difficult?

I hit level 3 yesterday and I'm putting points in weapons and stealth for gun handling and lock picking mostly.

I also wonder about stealing things, there doesn't seem to be a kharma meter like in Fallout 3 or New Vegas, at least that I noticed, so does stealing only cause an issue if someone sees you do it, or is there a good/bad scale that it gets added to? I've been avoiding stealing until I found out, because if it's observation based, as in, as long as you don't get caught, you're good, then I'm going to steal everything not nailed down. But if it's some unseen scale you're being judged on then that could effect how the game plays out and I'd want to know more before I steal stuff.

Oh and vending machines, is it safe to just hit the "sell junk" button and not worry about selling something you'd need later? I don't want to sell something that might come in handy at a future point.

[Art Blade]

junk is really nothing more than junk so you can sell it without having to worry about anything except at which price you're selling. That brings us to stealing.

You can (and actually should) steal everything that isn't in plain sight of anyone except your own crew. As long as nobody sees you, you're perfectly fine. However, IF someone sees you then typically they come running at you and no matter the outcome, it WILL affect your standings with the faction you stole from. You can see that in your character's Reputation sheet. And no, negative reputation does not go away but as long as your good reputation is more than the bad one, you should be good. Good reputation leads to better prices both selling any buying from a faction. You'll see for instance a green "+46%" in the vendor's menu which is also true for vending machines. Now back to selling junk, it does make a difference if you get just 1,000 or 1,460 bits for your junk

As to the perks/skill redistribution, using that machine costs 500 bits the first time, then 1,000 bits and so on. It's going to be expensive if you want to respec often. Hence I prepared a respec, recorded the vid, and then loaded my save from before respec'ing.

[mandru]

D_B, it's not exactly karma but there is reputation among the different factions that raises or lowers depending on which paths you decide to follow.  Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where working in the favor of one faction's desires will raise you reputation with the one while lowering it with the other.

One example I'm aware of is the conflict between the rebels on Monarch (if I remember correctly) and the corporate office is one of those situations where you can lean heavily in favor with one or the other but there is also the option of leaving both factions in a position of saving face so your reputation is raised among both groups.

Also be aware that re-speck of character doubles in cost every time it's used - just like tinkering to raise the level of one of your items in your gear over and over.


The Captain's cabin has lockers to store items (unlimited volume) that you don't want to carry but also don't want to accidentally sell as junk.

[Art Blade]

I love your enthusiasm, mandru Reminds me of "everyone on console" playing GTA V and I was giving tips and advice without having played the game. My experience came only from watching playthroughs When I finally got to play it, I was ready for it I hope it will be the same for you, matey

Meanwhile.. a 150 door.

[mandru]

 

Art thanks for showing how to hit the requirements for reaching level 150 in lock pick.  Is the preview of the locked contents before committing to open a container an additional perk?

I was surprised at the contents of that level 150 safe.  I was expecting at least something like a rare weapon, armor, or at least a hearty pile of credits.


I'm still trying to decide on what character build I want to play with so I've been pouring over available videos on build styles but I came across something that seemed to be a useful tip that at least I'll be applying once I get into the game.

It's entirely too easy to be overly cautious when starting out newbie green and virtually naked on a hostile world.  I have in mind that once my character is matured and more self reliant (comfortable in his own skin so to speak) to max the Lock Pick and Tinker skill sets but I've not yet found a selection of build options that will deliver the game play I hope for.

I do like that getting tinker to level 100 puts a cap on the cost of upgrading your favorite gear. 


Among the scores of videos I've watched I have noticed that by default when you obtain (or possibly(?) examine from a shop or vending machine) a weapon or armor item you will be shown the weapon's Base Damage Per Second (DPS) or Armor's Defense Value which when wielded or worn the Base Value may vary greatly from when you include your character stats and buffs from companions.

It's possible that one style of weapon may have a higher DPS value than another type of weapon but with your character build, perks, and companion buffs it's entirely possible that the lower DPS value weapon will be the one that really shines of the two in destruction/protection worth to the player.

To see what the item's real DPS will be once it's in your hands go to the Settings Menu and in the line "Tooltip Damage Display" select "DPS" and then turn off the switch for the line that says "Show Base Item Stats"

I've not seen it shown in a video but it is possible that under that heading "Tooltip Damage Display" there possibly may be an option that will provide the same type of composite info for an armor item's defense rating.  It's at least worth checking out.


Something relevant I'll paraphrase from a poster that hung on the wall in the office of my first employer:

When you are up to your *bleep* in virtual alligators it's often difficult to remember the key clicks and menu selections that will help you reach your original objective of draining the swamp.

[Art Blade]

funny poster.

before I answer your questions, first something else:

Something I found out by chance:

Vendor prices

I kept returning to one spot (the Groundbreaker) because I had a 46% discount there already. After selling a huge bunch of stuff for a couple thousand bits, I noticed it had gone up to 50%. So I can only assume that repeatedly doing business with a faction's vendor is good Turns out that other vendors on the Groundbreaker went to 50% as well.

Now to your questions/observations.

As to the base/real stats: I set mine to show the default because of various reasons: It doesn't "lie" to me, it's the real base stats. My own choices of wearing and changing gear that in turn changes those values would allow me to wrongly believe something that right now looks cool stays cool while the values might change depending on what I do. But that's not the main thing. It's more important to me to see those real stats because I keep swapping out my companions' gear and use their weapons or give them mine, same goes for armour and head gear. So those values indeed change depending on who's using that stuff. I can always see what the current values both for weapons and body gear are by clicking my own or my companions' data sheet.

As to tinkering, you need to spend skill points on science to get that to 100 and the side effect is -90% of the tinker costs. It won't w0#k with gear and companions alone (that green "adjusted" value shown in brackets) but still, yeah, tinkering allows you to upgrade your gear several levels and every time it probably doubles, never really checked that but after about 5 levels you typically end up with over 1,000 bits (the currency) for the next level so I typically stop right there.

As to the safe and looking inside without opening it, allow me to reuse my screenshot and take a look at the different levels there, specifically level 60. That's all it took

click the pic to magnify for better readability
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[Dweller_Benthos]

OK, cool, steal everything as long as no one is looking and sell all junk at vending machines to get money.

As for changing the perks on the character, maybe at most once I'd do that, if it so happens I get to a point where I find I've really messed something up or really, really want a different skill. But I think I chose right, going for science, weapon handling and sneak, to be able to build/repair, do damage and pick locks and hack computers.

[Art Blade]

selling at machines is OK. If possible, however, keep an eye out for better % which I don't think come from selling to machines but more likely from selling to people. The factions they belong to give you reputation that mounts into discounts or better selling prices respectively. Don't underestimate money ("bits") because tinkering is quickly eating through your money and more than one quest requires you to buy stuff with your own money, like, in advance. Of course you're going to make money, typically the most on finishing missions successfully, but in the meantime selling stuff is all you've got and junk adds up. Weapons and armour can be sold of course but you'll find out that you're constantly in need of weapon parts and maybe not so much of armour parts but still. So instead of selling weapons and armour, you're going to take them "a-part" (literally for parts) in order to maintain your gear. And there's food/drinks/medine... racking up that stuff quickly weighs a ton, I got a perk that halves the weight. And I keep selling stuff with negative effects and once in a while I sell what I think can be sold. Also mods that you get don't come at zero G Either sell those you've got lots of or won't ever use.. or stash them away somewhere.

The one thing you cannot respec is the attributes as shown in my first post in this topic. I went 50/50 (all in for "100" wasn't possible but 50/50 maxed out those attributes) so be mindful about what you're doing. I'm doing alright with my specs but I might use a different approach the next time around. It's interesting

my character
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[Dweller_Benthos]

Thanks for the info, that will come in handy. I'd have to look what abilities I picked, but I think I made most everything average and gave a couple boosts to intelligence and strength.

[Art Blade]

I've been experimenting with those % at vendors because surprisingly I was offered only 40% on the Groundbreaker instead of 50% like the last time. Turns out that it's related to Parvati and Felix. When they're on my crew I get 50%, if one leaves I get 46% (Felix with me) or 44% (Parvati with me) but for some reason I had 42% when I sent both away while I got 40% when I went there (always the same vendor by the way) on my own.

I don't see anywhere a "vendor bonus" related to companions.

At least I found out what those numbers in brackets on the stats sheets of the companions mean. They come from positive or negative attributes of body and/or headgear that add to or subtract from the companion's base value.