What are your favorite exos?

[keith.lamothe]

Well, is a Mine/Sentry specialist not unique enough?

Anyway, fair enough on them seeming less fun.  Their lackluster weapons are intentional (except for the epic with the chaingun, of course), as if they had good weapons AND are that incredible with the computer stuff... well, why would you take an Assault or Brawler exo, instead of 2 Science's?

That said, I understand that "because it's balanced that way" doesn't make sucky weapons feel any more fun.  What would you suggest?

I wouldn't mind it if I could use the Science Exo as a Mine/Sentry specialist.  As it is, I typically reserve almost all of those slots for hacking points (and one Capacitor, to help reduce inductive loading).  Maybe I'm just going overboard on hacking, and need to be willing to branch out a bit...

Well, do you usually spend all your hacking points every mission?

If so, maybe hacking points need to be higher on parts, or the science exo needs a +75% or +100% to computer stats instead of +50%.

[Teal_Blue]

You didn't ask me, but I'll just throw my two cents in if its OK, usually i have run out of hacking points toward the end of a mission, and as much as the computer terminals and loot doors are hacked, they don't all lead to nice stuff. At least twice in recent memory i lost all my ammo from one gun, and lost all my stealth.    So maybe if you up the number of points a bit, it won't make things too easy. Certainly not if i keep pulling terminal whacks every so often. 

-Teal

p.s.  Ooops, i should throw in that my two favorites are the assault because he's a tank and the science, for the hacks, also i've used the viruses and the mines every so often. 

The others i don't use as much, though i have used them a little. The expanded Exos beyond the first 4 i haven't gotten to at all yet.  Though i must admit, the siege is really nice in rooms with lots of bots.  He's saved me a few times. 

 

[Winge]

Well, do you usually spend all your hacking points every mission?

If so, maybe hacking points need to be higher on parts, or the science exo needs a +75% or +100% to computer stats instead of +50%.

I was just wondering that myself.  I think the answer is no--I loathe leaving locked doors, so I stacked my keys pretty heavily.  I think my Science had over 100 hacking points last game, overkill even on the 3x hacking missions.  In my current (relatively new) game, I'll try diversifying the Science Exo more and see if I get good results.

[Misery]

Well, do you usually spend all your hacking points every mission?

If so, maybe hacking points need to be higher on parts, or the science exo needs a +75% or +100% to computer stats instead of +50%.

I was just wondering that myself.  I think the answer is no--I loathe leaving locked doors, so I stacked my keys pretty heavily.  I think my Science had over 100 hacking points last game, overkill even on the 3x hacking missions.  In my current (relatively new) game, I'll try diversifying the Science Exo more and see if I get good results.

Yeah, you should be able to diversify without any problems with the science Exo.  I have mine working both as my sentry guy, and also for mine-laying, but I still have more than enough points to hack everything, though I have to make sure to keep up with new computer parts as much as possible to make sure it stays that way.   But it works out well.

[Tridus]

Personally that doesn't address the need very well for me, since what I find it's lacking is that workhorse weapon.

Fair enough.  Do you suppose the Volatizer could be made more workhorse without being made OP?

Probably not with the AoE pattern it has, no. Wide area weapons can't really also be frequently used workhorses without being OP, just because they can hit so much stuff at once.

That was why I was looking at the plasma rifle originally, I didn't realize it was an AoE weapon (without upgrades it appears to have no AoE in the version I have). With two other AoE weapons, I'd be happier with a bigger single target gun. Amusingly, the Epic Science exo actually does better at that thanks to the chain gun. You could give the Epic Assault the chain gun, but that'd probably overpower it (chain gun with that thing's defenses? Oh man!) and take away a unique cool thing that the Epic Science has.

If you did want to give it something unique (rather than more single target firepower), replace one of the guns with a 1 ammo EMP bomb. That'd be the robot equivalent of assault forces using flashbangs and gas to disable opponents before they storm in.

Hey Keith, any update on what if anything you're doing here?

Playing around a bit with the other two bots, using a party of Brawler/Ninja/Siege/Sniper:

Brawler - So far, I kind of like this guy. Pistol is only really good for clearing cover and holding exo wide boosters, but it saves the other ammo. He packs a punch if you use the whistle to get stuff to come to you behind cover. Also has a lot of guns and enough ammo to use them, so he can do a LOT of damage when not in a wide-open area (not sure how he'd do in a Lions Den mission).

Sniper - The Gamma Ray Laser is awesome. Laser rifle is as good as ever early on. Three propulsion slots, two shield slots, and two computer slots. If you can find a way to get enough hacking points, pretty big boost over a science bot.

So at the non-epic level I think every bot does their niche fairly well. Haven't gotten brawler and sniper at epic level yet.

[keith.lamothe]

Hey Keith, any update on what if anything you're doing here?

Still planning to adjust the plasma rifle, I've just been busy with the 6-year-old and 3-year-old being back in the house since Tuesday evening

On the other hand, if what's being looked for from the epic-assault is an additional workhorse weapon, perhaps either the plasma rifle or vola could be swapped out with something else.  It doesn't have to be a copy of another weapon's stats (exactly), but it would need to be one of the existing weapons already found on an exo.

Any ideas on what would be good to swap in, and for what?  Or not a promising approach in general?

[Tridus]

Still planning to adjust the plasma rifle, I've just been busy with the 6-year-old and 3-year-old being back in the house since Tuesday evening

Cool.

On the other hand, if what's being looked for from the epic-assault is an additional workhorse weapon, perhaps either the plasma rifle or vola could be swapped out with something else.  It doesn't have to be a copy of another weapon's stats (exactly), but it would need to be one of the existing weapons already found on an exo.

Any ideas on what would be good to swap in, and for what?  Or not a promising approach in general?

The plasma rifle is the weapon I don't "get", so that's probably the one I'd modify or replace. It's weird to have a low-ammo AoE weapon that without upgrades has no AoE. To replace it with existing weapons, the two I'd choose between are the chain gun or the shotgun. Both have enough ammo to see significant use, and both can do higher damage than the laser rifle.

The shotgun might be a better choice because it's fairly short range (thus leaving a place for the laser rifle & machine gun), and sticking the chain gun on the epic assault exo with its defenses and all the other weapons it brings to the table might just be ridiculous. I guess the only danger there is that it devalues the grenade launcher somewhat, but the grenades are still base higher damage and a better AoE pattern.

My top option would probably be a "plasma pistol" if you will, that being the plasma rifle with more ammo and without any pretense at being an AoE weapon. But really any gun with a good ammo allotment and and solid damage will do what I'm looking for.

[Winge]

So, I finally tried the Brawler out, and I love it.  Extremely gear dependent, as it has almost no range (whereas the Ninja and Sniper do decently without much gear, but the Brawler surpasses them with a lot of gear.

One thing I don't understand about the epic Brawler:  why does it have only 2 Reactor slots?  That seems unusually limiting; even the Epic Assault has 3 slots available.

[Misery]

I just wanted to quickly say:   Assault Exo.   Could do with some boosts.  The Epic version may be different but the normal version is damn near useless on Expert.  Simply cannot keep up with the damage level of the others, and doesnt really have utility value like the Science bot does.

That grenade launcher though, that one has potential, but it doesnt do enough damage as-is.

Currently, this guy is very tanky, but in this game being able to tank doesnt mean much if you cannot deal out some damage while doing it.

[Teal_Blue]

Just a thought, but instead of swapping weapons out, would it make the Assault better from easy to expert if the grenade launcher numbers increased?

I don't know what they are now, i will have to look, but if there was a +2 per level of difficulty, then we might have-

casual  - base
easy     - +20%
normal  - +20%
hard     - +20%
expert  - +20%
misery  - +20%

Meaning we have an additional 50% by the time we hit the hardest difficulty. At first i thought 5%, or 10% would be enough, but if we are talking hundreds of bots opponents and say 14 grenades for easy, then that is only a total of 28 for the hardest levels.

Maybe 30%? which would give us 42 grenades at the same explosive value as easy, just more of them.  Which would be the same as keeping the 14 grenades and upping the explosive value if that is seen as better. In one sense it seems like that would turn into a rocket launcher kind of weapon. Whereas if we keep the grenades the same value and increase their number, then i can use them in more situations, or more often. Which i probably will need to if i am looking at hundreds of bots i am going up against.

Does this sound reasonable? Or off somehow?

-Teal