heyyy Freak Out!: PSA about freak gal type.

[legionof1]

Okay so went digging for the new freak solider's stat block and the results are....interesting.

Minimums stats are about 5 points less then standard hands across the board

Stat caps(from training and combat gains) are 5-20 points worse then other types of gals with exception of Psi strength at 66(best possible) and psi skill at the normal 40.

The interesting feature is max stats(max possible stat value on hire). These range from -10(fireing) to +35(stamina) over other types of gals stat caps.

This means a well rolled freak is better then anything else available in what it rolled well in and only marginally worse elsewhere. Notable stats include 120 reactions(vs 100), 110 hp(vs 90), and 100 strength(vs 80).

However the intial range on stats is huge and 100k a pop to hire.

[Bacon_Hero]

Hey thanks, I didn't realise 99G2 was out till I read your post! Looks like I'm over a month behind :p

Hopefully the changes don't affect my weapon and gear choices too much. Is LC-HEAT (Plasma) still top of the food chain for mid game?

Gonna upgrade later and I'll keep freaks in mind. Haven't unlocked it yet though.

[legionof1]

Couldn't say, never used it much myself. Though nothing that i know have has directly affected that weapon.

I tend to favor melee, thrown grenades of assorted types, and rocket launchers. I find alot of the "mid-grade" heavy weapons like the light cannon and it like inefficient for there weight/size or TU usage. If i need to tackle a meaty target i want it go down as quickly as possible to minimize the number of reaction test possibilities from any nastyness said meaty is wielding.

Gals are unfortunately frail past the early game. Defense becomes more about minimizing the hospital stay/increasing time to bleed out, then actually preventing injury. A gal below 75% hp(without pain tolerance/immunity) will eventually die without attendance if a mission runs long for what ever reason. Even with attendance the sheer amount time spent shoving stun recovery items might as well put you down a gal anyway.

I don't have the play time to spend on finessing a single tactical map for an entire sitting. Nor is the game particularly forgiving. In fact if anything it has been getting increasingly more unforgiving for the past 8 months or so. I do enjoy the challenge but there much less margin for exploration/sub optimal play. What i use has been shaped accordingly. If it can't delete any target i might face in 2-3 shot/swings it not worth picking up, unless im intentionally going for captures.

[Bacon_Hero]

I find rocket launchers a little slow and I've had bad experiences with friendly fire. On average you'll need 1.5 rounds per shot for 160 damage? Also, girls with jetpacks only get 1 shot off it due to lack of space for rockets.

Compared to LC-HEAT that does 90!!! plasma damage per shot with fair accuracy and can be shot 3 times in a single round. The damage output is unrivaled by lots of late game weapons.

I guess if you have 6 to 8 girls with rocket launchers you can just blast low skilled creeps away but it doesn't really take away reaction fire risk, especially if you have an off-map miss. I tend favour use of arcing weapons like mortars and grenades to blast people I can't reach while my firing line lays a trap for enemies. It's much slower but I find it safer, even against heavily armoured enemies.

One weapon that has had a big change is that the neural whip. It no longer affects mechanical enemies. Previously you could 1 shot cyberdiscs and academy drones. Now it's useless against them. I don't really understand why it doesn't affect Cyberdiscs which has no damage modifiers vs mind. Academy drones now have a 0% damage mod vs mind so that's understandable.

...And yeah, melee is just overpowered! Vibro-axes can kill almost anything in 1 hit and cost only 14TU per swing.

[legionof1]

As far as rocket's go i fudge things a little bit by aiming at terrain nearby my targets, and manipulating lines of fire so rockets won't sail off into nothing. As long as your aoe epicenter is within a few tiles it's just as good as a direct hit.

[Absalom]

I hired a batch of freaks to fill out a extra voodoo school just for giggles and sweet jesus the stats are obscene.  I have one with 100+ strength and melee accuracy w/o training... in fact, they are universally above statwise than the other batch of last months regular recruits who have even spent the extra month they've been hired in the dojo.  There are a few flubs such as reactions <30 but its the exception rather than the rule.

Makes me think that there's something off in the stat allocation.

Edit:  Example Image.  Seriously I just hired this chick and put her in V. classes



The rest are like this, only slightly less absurd.

[khade]

Is there a non datamining way to tell what the max stats are?

[juff]

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Hands_(Piratez) was just updated to include freaks

[karadoc]

Makes me think that there's something off in the stat allocation.

I just glanced at the stat allocation code, and it looks like it should work as expected:

Code: [Select]

UnitStats minStats = rules->getMinStats();
UnitStats maxStats = rules->getMaxStats();

_initialStats.tu = RNG::generate(minStats.tu, maxStats.tu);
_initialStats.stamina = RNG::generate(minStats.stamina, maxStats.stamina);
_initialStats.health = RNG::generate(minStats.health, maxStats.health);
_initialStats.bravery = RNG::generate(minStats.bravery/10, maxStats.bravery/10)*10;
_initialStats.reactions = RNG::generate(minStats.reactions, maxStats.reactions);
_initialStats.firing = RNG::generate(minStats.firing, maxStats.firing);
_initialStats.throwing = RNG::generate(minStats.throwing, maxStats.throwing);
_initialStats.strength = RNG::generate(minStats.strength, maxStats.strength);
_initialStats.psiStrength = RNG::generate(minStats.psiStrength, maxStats.psiStrength);
_initialStats.melee = RNG::generate(minStats.melee, maxStats.melee);
_initialStats.psiSkill = minStats.psiSkill;

_currentStats = _initialStats;
(Although I don't know why it ignores the max for psi-skill. I would have thought that if the modder didn't want psi-skill above the minimum, then they'd just set the max to be the same as the min. There's no need to make a special hard-coded rule just for that.)

[ohartenstein23]

Psi skill is special in that the minimum is usually set to 0, i.e., cannot use psi weapons until trained in a facility, then max is the max roll you can get from that training.

[Bloax]

There are a few flubs such as reactions <30 but its the exception rather than the rule.

If their reactions are this low, it just means that doing some easy missions with practicing their shit-tier stats will yield massive rewards.

So if they get some neat rolls then that'd be the best way to fix the shit rolls.

[Dioxine]

Looks like I was too generous with stat caps, if such over-the-caps happen so often.

[legionof1]

The pictured freak is only ahead in 3 of 10 stats compared to a maxed normal gal. TU, reactions, and voodoo power. Everything else while high for initial stats will max out below other gals.

3 superior stats vs 7 sub standard(when maxed) seems like a fine balance to me considering they cost 5x a hand and 25% more then a warrior, and will still need time in training. The really low initial stat floor will probably lead to a large fraction of fired vs keeps for most players. Freaks intial stat floor is worse then hands by 5 to 10 points in most stats. 


Granted if you are suffering lots of deaths, freaks are generally gonna be a superior immediate replacement, when training is not an option.

[khade]

Is there some visual indication of a stat being maxed out?

[legionof1]

There is not. However the attached table might help. Included are the max earned stat limits for freaks and normal gals and the upper intial limits for freaks. Psi strength not listed as it is a 99% non-improvable stat(unless have the one rare outfit), although freak can have up 66 vs normal 60. Psi skill also not listed as it unaffected by gal type.