Aground
Koumori 21 May, 2023 @ 2:43pm
Slightly disappointed that late-game science (or hybrid) gear can't match magic
I guess it makes a certain amount of sense in-lore considering the HQ spells are weapons stolen from an advanced alien race who, given their warmongering ways, presumably have put a lot of effort into perfecting such tools of destruction, but I find myself wishing that the science path had been given options on-par with the HQ spells. It's easy to make the cost of spells trivial by bumping up your spellcasting skill and wearing something with stamina regen, and they outclass exo/cyborg weapons in both power and practicality. The battery powered staff is also rendered largely useless by its tripled spell cost and the aforementioned ease of trivializing the stamina cost of spells.

Aside from weapons, the magic path also offers the only single-slot shield with 360° protection, the only sources of personal flight not using the back slot (thereby freeing that slot for the fantastic hoarder backpack), AND the strongest space vessel in the form of the dragon cruiser (so long as you don't mind feeding it loads of steak, but, come on, just put a couple amethyst golems with the fin modification into a wyrm pen).


Well anyway, quibbles aside, it did end up being a much better game than I expected, and strangely addictive to boot.

Edit: I think the design intent may have been for the magic path to require a larger initial investment of exploration and effort with the payoff being a higher power cap, whereas the science path is more linear with new tiers of equipment being given much more readily.
Last edited by Koumori; 21 May, 2023 @ 3:17pm
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Showing 1-6 of 6 comments
LuVenBen 21 May, 2023 @ 4:56pm 
don't forget that science has more quality of life improvements. teleportation, space stations and better crafting stations.
Koumori 21 May, 2023 @ 5:59pm 
Originally posted by LuVenBen:
don't forget that science has more quality of life improvements. teleportation, space stations and better crafting stations.
Teleportals are fantastic, I'll admit. Space stations don't really serve any practical purpose and are pretty much just for fun. "Better" crafting stations is debatable since (most of) the really good stuff is crafted at the magic crafting stations, plus magic has the uncrafting and skill reset station.

All that is beside the point, though, since what I was trying to say (originally, anyway, though I did digress a bit into generic "magic path vs. science path") is that if you optimize your equipped gear without specifically limiting yourself to one path or the other, the optimal choice ends up being full magic. A wizard using space stations and factories is still a wizard, and I was kind of hoping to go for a more technological flavor on my character without needing to sacrifice power.
Last edited by Koumori; 21 May, 2023 @ 7:54pm
jemriah 23 May, 2023 @ 7:40pm 
if you want to go technological, you can fly the exo-fighter pretty much anywhere accessible to your character and fight most bosses using it. if you stock it with materials it virtually becomes indestructible and it can dish extreme amounts of damage which from memory exceed any magic in the game. if you break it down to DPS then perhaps not but considering you can kill and loot without leaving your ship which travels substantially faster than any other form of transport and has it's own carry capacity... technology branch is OP and magic branch has it's own version of OP. same but different which i think is the point
Koumori 24 May, 2023 @ 5:13am 
Originally posted by jemriah:
if you want to go technological, you can fly the exo-fighter pretty much anywhere accessible to your character and fight most bosses using it. if you stock it with materials it virtually becomes indestructible and it can dish extreme amounts of damage which from memory exceed any magic in the game.
Saying it can go pretty much anywhere accessible to your character is a bit of a stretch; I don't know about you, but I spent >50% of my time underground (including late/post-game when the exo fighter and HQ spells are actually available), and taking the exo fighter underground is not an easy prospect. Virtually indestructible? Maybe, but sticking ice core mods on all of your gear can result in a personal armor value equal to (or exceeding!) the armor of the exo fighter, and then it's easy enough to stock up on food to make yourself virtually indestructible. Your point on damage output is solid, though; the exo fighter does indeed have very high DPS that exceeds any spell (except the book of meteor vs. plant or ice enemies, or the book of spikes vs. fire or ice enemies).

Between struggling to shove it through tight spaces, needing to keep it topped off with expensive exotic matter, and lacking the utility of attacks with homing or enemy/wall piercing qualities, the exo fighter is just far more inconvenient to use than magic for barely any benefit. Perhaps it's a more suitable choice for someone who doesn't spend so much time poking around in caves and tunnels.
LuVenBen 24 May, 2023 @ 6:23am 
Originally posted by Koumori:
Originally posted by jemriah:
if you want to go technological, you can fly the exo-fighter pretty much anywhere accessible to your character and fight most bosses using it. if you stock it with materials it virtually becomes indestructible and it can dish extreme amounts of damage which from memory exceed any magic in the game.
Saying it can go pretty much anywhere accessible to your character is a bit of a stretch; I don't know about you, but I spent >50% of my time underground (including late/post-game when the exo fighter and HQ spells are actually available), and taking the exo fighter underground is not an easy prospect. Virtually indestructible? Maybe, but sticking ice core mods on all of your gear can result in a personal armor value equal to (or exceeding!) the armor of the exo fighter, and then it's easy enough to stock up on food to make yourself virtually indestructible. Your point on damage output is solid, though; the exo fighter does indeed have very high DPS that exceeds any spell (except the book of meteor vs. plant or ice enemies, or the book of spikes vs. fire or ice enemies).

Between struggling to shove it through tight spaces, needing to keep it topped off with expensive exotic matter, and lacking the utility of attacks with homing or enemy/wall piercing qualities, the exo fighter is just far more inconvenient to use than magic for barely any benefit. Perhaps it's a more suitable choice for someone who doesn't spend so much time poking around in caves and tunnels.
so maybe the choice between magic and science is purely preferential?
Koumori 24 May, 2023 @ 6:47am 
Originally posted by LuVenBen:
so maybe the choice between magic and science is purely preferential?
Mmm, maybe... That's certainly true in the mid game wherein the laser rife and wand/basic spellbooks are largely equivalent, but I still hold that magic equipment performs better in almost every measure during the late game.
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