The Outer Worlds

[Art Blade]

I'm starting to understand something..

it's about bugs and stats.

Remember that I first said that sometimes my companions had two values like "lockpick 50 (55)" and that I didn't know what it was, then I said I knew what it was: skills coming from gear? I now realised that there IS a bug, likely only an optical but we'll never really know: if your companion is affected by a skill coming from say, body armour, then it shows in brackets. Well, I changed out their gear but those values didn't change. They had frozen, stuck on the gear values from, I guess, before reloading a save game. The values change, but who knows why and when they are actually correct.

When mandru mentioned "base" values to toggle on or off in the settings, I said I didn't want to show actual values so I'd know what the unaffected value was without getting confused by varying numbers. Well, meanwhile I toggled it back and forth and guess what.. it's not only related to the player (I quote from the UI settings menu: "your character's individual skill") but also to your companions' skills. Meaning, you can see what your companions "make of it" when they equip stuff.

And that was frustrating to see. Not one of them got anywhere near the base value regarding weapons. Their ranged and melee weapon ratings were downgraded. Not a little but severely. Please remember that I'm looking at level 25 companions right now. You can check it out like this, for comparison: set the UI to base value. Let's assume you've got one companion with (base values) 50 armour and 150 damage (doesn't matter which type of gear, just a random number to explain it here) and you see those numbers when you look at them and their gear. Now you go to their stats sheet where the "actual" numbers are and boy, was I surprised to see that in my case the base value for armour was sometimes lower and sometimes higher than what was on the stats sheet and I was really shocked to see the weapons values. The armour may have been like 52 or 48 but the weapon was like 30 instead of 150. WHAT THE HELL?! I can only hope that this is a bug.

I never noticed when I was out in the field and sent my companions into battle. Remember I once said they finished off "rapts" before I could even fire one shot? They keep doing well out there, and they keep mopping up almost everything I came across. The first time they went down was when Felix with his balloon gun wasn't on my team but Nyoka instead of him, and Parvati was on the team. What took them out was a bunch of monsters and, wait for it, a Mega Mantiqueen. I hadn't even seen her or at least not the "mega" bit on her name tag, and silly me, I sent the girls over to mop up whatever there was .. which was a tad too much in this case So I had to put that thing down by myself. Well. That was truly a high level enemy. But up and so far, my companions had always managed to mop up everything. Which means, I don't believe that they could have done that with such low weapon stats as their stats sheets suggest.

So I'll ignore that nonsense and stick to base values that I see on the gear itself and I'll keep sending my companions ahead to do the wetwork for me, just the way I've always done it.

[Art Blade]

We (Felix, Parvati and I) just took out a Mega Raptidon, 3 Raptidon Maulers, 3 Raptidon Spitters, a few more Raptidons I couldn't find the remaining bits of (probably ash heaps hidden in the grass) and a Raptidon Colossus. Those were two packs, starting with the mega rapt and his minions (we stayed unharmed) and followed by the colossus posse which was a tad tough on Felix (I think he went down and got up again thanks to a perk) but we managed. I had to help (I decided to use only a comparatively weak shotgun with 53x8 damage) when the colossal party came at us. Those things are big as a bus

So.. if my guys were so badly equipped, we'd have been wiped out by the first group already.

Trust your instincts and in the fun factor, forget those unreliable stats.

[Art Blade]

I can now confirm that the % discount at vendors is a matter of how high (base or adjusted) the value of your persuasion skill is. And I get more % with Felix and Parvati on my team because both of them have got the persuasion skill.

I also decided to respec my character again and therefore can confirm that the respec price doubles every time you use the machine. Along with my specs I decided to change the perks of my companions, given their stupidly low weapon power. I gave them the 10% more damage perks for ranged and melee weapons and the faster switch and reload perk as well.

All of that should match my playing style better than my previous specs.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Interesting info, Art, not easy to keep track when the game isn't reporting the correct numbers to you.

I've spec'd my character to be fairly average for the most part at the beginning, I think I boosted a couple skills a little, but nothing dramatic. I picked the scientist role (whatever it was called) for the bonus intelligence and then started adding points to weapons, stealth and charisma (that's the Fallout term, whatever it's called here) to get damage ratings up, be able to lockpick and hack and persuade people to do what I want. I never do melee, don't even carry a melee weapon, so there's only a few points in that, which honestly I'd rather transfer to something else.

The first few bits of the game are as usual, slow to get going, you only have the pistol, but I went around and explored as much as I could without getting killed by those primal things and found shotguns, assault rifles, and machine guns, and my favorite, the sniper, before even going into town to get the main mission going. By the time I had Pavarti as a companion, I had a grenade launcher to give her and soon after some power armor (wait, is this Fallout? I'm confused) to put her in. Even with the grenade launcher, she likes to run in with a hammer which I guess she came with, I don't recall giving her one, and pummel on enemies with it. So maybe I'll give her something better to hit things with.

Just generally looting everything that I find, breaking down weapons and armor for parts and getting mods is the way I went. My sniper now has electric shock and my assault rifle has something, I forget what, and when a primal behemoth comes running at me, the light machine gun will knock it back. Pavarti will chime with some grenades and so far doing OK. Only just got the ship repaired and took off, but I need to go back to Edgewater and finish up some exploring and grab some stuff I stashed there.

My advice is to just run with it and have fun, it is a fun game to just roam around and find stuff, get side quests, etc, the map (at least Edgewater) is large enough to wander around in but not so large that you easily get way off the path and get lost, both physically and story-wise. Since I haven't seen the other planets yet, that might be different elsewhere.

[Art Blade]

the maps are probably more or less of the same size and fast-travelling to them is done either using map markers (fast travel points) or elevators like to get to bigger facility's interior maps. For a new set of maps if you will, from your ship's navigation terminal to other planets or space stations and stuff where the aforementioned methods will apply again. That part of the game is very much like FO3 (not 4) but enjoyable nonetheless.

There's one more bit that's not like FO4: you're not going to build stuff. However, you're going to take your home with you, or is it the other way round? Because it's your ship.. it will be on the same global map as you are.

About your character build, while it's not as extreme as mine, you seem to be pretty much on the same path as I.

[Art Blade]

Maybe you're wondering why exactly I favour Felix and Parvati. Apart from their skill sets boosting mine quite well, I keep enjoying their conversations and remarks. Even those small chats among themselves because both are in a way naive, honest and very loyal plus Felix in that combo is involuntarily rather funny as he is.. well, intellectually more on the slim side.

And, ha! I found that safecracker's jacket with +10 lockpick and a cool leather cap with +5 lockpick. Now I only need either Felix or Parvati to be on the team to hit 150+ lockpick. You may remember me respec'ing and then I levelled it up to 84 so far and that is enough for reaching 150+ with just one of those fave companions now.

safecracker
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[Dweller_Benthos]

I just met Felix last night, but haven't done much else as I was sleepy and actually dozed off while walking around the landing area of the Groundbreaker, luckily there's safety railings or I'd have walked off the edge in my sleep!   

Anyway, nice find on the lockpick boosting garments, will have to keep an eye out for those.

[Art Blade]

yeah but it took me quite some time to get them. All I will hint is that it's only accessible during Felix's companion mission. And to avoid you fearing to miss it, it's on Scylla.

meanwhile, look at my engineer skills.. in that case, I went to a workbench outside the ship in order to get the full engineering bonus of both Ellie and Parvati. I also "dressed" them up with gear that boosts engineering and tech abilities.

The reason you want to get as high as possible, even above 150, is the costs of weapon/armour parts will drop significantly. Given how easy it is to spend them and how much effort it means to collect them (or how expensive repairs are) it's definitely worth remembering this. I can also do repairs from within my inventory but not modding/tinkering. However, keep using companions with skills you need. I know that you're not in that position yet (few companions to choose from) but still.

engineering master
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[Art Blade]

I want to add something which at least I couldn't really find a description for in the game.

If you look at the pic above with that safecracker's jacket in it, you'll notice (and perhaps recognise) those faint swirly symbols in the corners (it would be the centre background of the item's icon in your inventory, like a stylised sun) It's apparently reserved for unique items. You are likely to find quite a few guns and armour pars that are decorated that way.

I'm pointing it out because Dweller wanted to keep an eye out for that jacket and my hint when to find it was actually lacking this information. In other words, there is only exactly one safecracker's jacket and you need to be doing Felix's companion quest on Scylla in order to find it.

Those items aren't always useful. From what I've seen so far, and I'm looking back from my current level 28, they are typically low-level stuff with low damage and protection. Those are cool when you're only just starting out, a few of them have useful traits and might be better or even a lot better than what you usually find when looting stuff as a newbie.

I've only ever bought two single items from anyone. Recently, a pistol on the Groundbreaker from one of those more elusive non-corporate characters, not just any random vendor in their typical corporate shops. With my 56% discount it still cost around 2,700 bits. It's a pistol with acid for damage and my character's got a boost for that type of weapon damage which in fact turns it into the highest damage pistol I've got. And I had almost 30,000 bits so I could indeed easily afford it.

And I also bought one more item at a random vendor but still at a 56% discount for some 380 bits: an armour mod, that I couldn't loot anywhere so far: an improved +10 tech kit which boost my engineering. With my character build, it's worth +20 engineering, and I am using it in the "engineering master" pic above.

[mandru]

I'm about 20 hours into the game and I'm ready to lift ship from Emerald Vale with Parvatti and the Vicar in tow.  I've ticked the boxes on all main and side missions.

Getting enough money to do what I want but I did manage to scrape up enough credits to grab the Fiver out at the Botanical Garden. The unique Fiver is a small scoped revolver that has had it's cylinder retooled to fire 5 heavy rounds between reloads.

Some videos I've viewed claim it's the best handgun in the game.

The most significant thing that's occurred so far is Parvatti was appalled that I killed the Town Boss.  It wasn't my preferred method of getting him out of town I simply couldn't get the secret ingredients for the fertilizer from the old gal to prove to Reed that her leadership for the corporation was superior.  It didn't hurt to consider the fact that she alone had learned the secret of growing crops on their alien world (sour soil) that had made all her gang of followers bright eyed and glowingly he@lthy being free of the plague.

Parvatti was so put off with me that she flat out quit and told me to never talk to her again.

I was surprised when I went to my ship to climb the gang plank and leave Parvatti was right there at my elbow pestering me to let her join my crew.

IMHO so far the best quote of the game? (as well as I can remember)
Parvatti: I'll do a great job taking care of your ship Mister uh Captain...  Captain!  I've got a CAPTAIN!  (accompanied by a fluttering of hands and a jiggle of excitement  )

[Art Blade]

 

I didn't get that pistol but now that you mentioned how good it is supposed to be, I wonder for how long. I mean, considering that after 5 levels of tinkering you'll have to pay over 1k bits for the next level, it is likely going to be way too expensive to keep levelling it up to say level 25 (my weapons range from around 20-25) and that makes me think that perhaps it may be the best weapon for the start of the game. However, enjoy it while it lasts

And yes, the lines are funny, Parvati and Felix keep coming up with the best of those

So far, I haven't killed anyone. Thanks to the very high level in one of my dialogue-related attributes (the ones you can't respec later on) I have always been able to surrender their secrets or persuade people to do what I want (regarding the given options) when I really needed it.. so that paid off nicely.

With a save game at hand, for fun and out of curiosity, I had the vicar storm that office and kill that same guy with his special move very much to my delight and very much to Parvati's utmost dismay. When she asked me in disbelieve, "did you enjoy that?" and I confirmed it, she got quite mad Of course I reloaded the save and had that guy leave of his own accord.

Which reminds me: special moves of your companions will always magically use the weapon in the description of it, like the vicar will use his shotgun even if you gave him different weapons, Parvati her hammer even if she doesn't have one and so on.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I missed that gun as well, where was it? Can you go back and get it? Not that I need it at this point, just a matter of curiosity.

It took me a few trips through Hobson's (or whatever his name is) dialog choices to get to the place where he leaves of his own free will. The path wasn't obvious and was several choices deep in the dialog tree. I didn't realize you needed to have the fertilizer secret from what's-her-name first. Luckily my habit is to try all dialog choices that are available, so I must have gotten the right info just randomly.

Thanks for that hint on the jacket, Art, I'll keep and eye out for sure.

I wandered around the Groundbreaker and tried a little fun after grabbing a save game, seeing how long I would last just shooting everyone on the docking platform before I was killed. Wasn't long, though I probably could have lasted longer if I focused on people actually shooting at me instead of the people who were cowering in corners. Nice to have a save game to fall back on, most of the games I'm playing now don't have that option and I miss it sometimes.

[Art Blade]

welcome, Dweller

I am pretty sure that I didn't miss that pistol, only I didn't buy it. There was this one vendor I think you could buy it from. I don't recall much because a) it was too bloody expensive and b) there is no b.

The fertiliser is something she wouldn't hand out just like that so you had to talk to her (maybe persuade her even) until she told you the details. I already started out with a high persuasion skill so I kept using it everywhere and maybe got that info because of it.

To send the guy out of office of his own accord I just followed the dialogue choices that weren't leading to a massacre and he gave in just like that. I don't even know whether or not I needed to know the fertiliser story but I know that I had my character lie about it. Something like, "I don't know the details but it works." Not sure you could perhaps bluff him out of office that way if you really didn't know

[mandru]

Art, I know you can assign the companions (except the robot) two weapons and in the settings you can select slot #1 or slot #2 as the principal weapon they will wield but there is a third option in the three setting options which is Mixed.  If set to mixed will the not alternate on their special moves?

I gave Parvatti a second powerful weapon and set her for mixed but never figured out how to direct her to use the attack so I couldn't check it for myself.


About the Fiver.  You do need to talk to the Botanical Lab town boss Adelaide before any of the town's folk will talk to you.

To get the Fiver you can buy it for about 4000 bits which is why I was scrounging up every bit I could lay hands on.  Stephan Garcia who sits out on his porch sells it but only before you do the dirty deed at the power plant.  Afterwards he closes shop to conserve on the group's resources.


Apparently there is a way to access console commands but it depends on a downloadable Developers Tool that runs externally and reaches into the Unreal engine to access the tilde key to open the console.

However on looking into the program there are 4 or 5 different program names to down load and the chance of downloading a keylogger spooked me away from going any further in researching that avenue. 

[Art Blade]

mandru, if you look at your screen in-game, look at the lower left corner where you will see letters Z X C V and symbols above each. Z to send your companion(s) to where you're looking at, hold Z to call them back to your position, X to attack what you're looking at, and the other two are the special attack moves for each of your two companions. Their symbols represent their special ability so it changes with companions. They will always use their special attack (Felix will use his feet..) no matter the stuff you gave them. (Thanks to my keyboard layout, I've got Y where you've got Z so in my pics you'll see Y X C V)

"Mixed" works if they are in a CQC situation, otherwise they seem to prefer ranged weapons. Probably because everyone is running around freely.

And indeed, I don't feel like downloading several tools and stuff either, ONLY to be able to cheat in a game that actually doesn't even need cheating. So far, I only died at the very beginning when attending a King Kong group hug session next to the Unreliable and a bit beyond in that secluded area. But there I died several times in very quick succession After that, I only got injured a lot when I was a very low level character and that's when I "picked up" my flaws (for perks) but I quickly learned to let my companions die for me and watch them resurrect themselves after I killed the sometimes single remaining enemy After that I started to kit out my companions with the best gear I could get and ever since, no problems at all with whatever comes at us. And they do keep you safe. Much better than most or even any game that I can think of

Use your perks wisely so you can use your companions a lot both in combat and during other activities like hacking and lockpicking and conversations. Maybe even use the perk that gives you XP for kills your companions keep racking up. Later in the game you can respec (and afford to respec more than once) and get rid of "newbie" perks and use other ones that suit your advanced style more, same goes for the skill points to spend. Use them for advanced stuff like what I did with lockpicking and engineering.