HTML Masters of Raana [v0.8.3.8 public] [GrimDark]

[Gunner Rey]

Oh I'm not denying that the skill classes are very helpful. I'm just saying that in a Rise game I consider the non stat related traits more important so I'm more likely to take zero skill classes so I can load up on most of the good traits even if it means I can't have Deadly Strike (which is normally an automatic pick for me). My usual starts do include enough influence for me to pick up Ayden on day 1 so as you mentioned that pretty much makes any early game combat a cakewalk even if everyone else in your party is entirely useless (including MC). Kate is an obvious pickup if you can get Ayden since that gets you 1 merc in better than Duraplate and another in effectively a stealth suit on day 1. Tough to beat that, although Ayden does have a high salary so if you're playing on Dying World no ammo pack for awhile unless you get lucky on events.

I've been taking Mountain Man most of the time lately so 200+ dex is not an option for me. Definitely has it's uses for a fight like Terror but I generally find it not very useful against gun wielding opponents, which is what you're facing in most of the tough fights. Aaron is also a pretty good early game pick up except he takes a lot of training before he really shines. His melee output is eventually comparable to Cassius though and he does not take a salary.

I went nuts with both Int and Manipulation in my current game at character creation to see what effect it has on the option to enslave my mercs later. Some of them seem to be Int based and others are Manipulation based. So my starting int was 170 and my starting Manipulate was 165. My previous game I managed to enslave everyone except the top tiers without too many issues. I even managed to eventually convince Samuel, but the other top tiers were all impossible at my stat levels even with a 50k bribe, undying affection, and negative willpower.

Oh...I was a Mountain Man in that start too, note the fine print. It's difficult to increase your Dex past 60 (or whatever it is), but if your Dex is already 201 you don't really need to increase it, now do you? Note that you can't take 'Stiffness' and try it as you'll think you're getting away with it until you get to the starting screen and see your Dex back to 70. I did it mostly for the 'Godzilla Protocol' and also because I wanted to create a physical superhero.

I also maxed Manipulation before taking my Skill Classes and Traits, sacrificing starting with mega influence and money to make the early game more of a struggle--and to get the best Traits and Skill Classes. I had Slaver-3, Soldier-2 and Hunting -1. My hope was to be able to strip-em, whip-em and shove a buttplug up their ass from the outset to get their Corruption up ASAP, and it mostly worked, though some (like Mae for some reason) are especially resistant to that butt-plug (it wasn't her traits either, I've tried it with many different Maes and had the same problem).

I get what you're saying about sacrificing Skill Classes to get more Traits, that's my basic inclination as well (don't pay for what you can train, take what can't be obtained later) but was just pointing out in an Ironman game being able to fight from the outset with little fear of permanent deaths is kind of an 'Enhanced' trait as well if you think about it.

By the way, who is Aaron?' I read that name recently but couldn't think of who that was.

 

[khumak]

Oh...I was a Mountain Man in that start too, note the fine print. It's difficult to increase your Dex past 60 (or whatever it is), but if your Dex is already 201 you don't really need to increase it, now do you? Note that you can't take 'Stiffness' and try it as you'll think you're getting away with it until you get to the starting screen and see your Dex back to 70. I did it mostly for the 'Godzilla Protocol' and also because I wanted to create a physical superhero.

I also maxed Manipulation before taking my Skill Classes and Traits, sacrificing starting with mega influence and money to make the early game more of a struggle--and to get the best Traits and Skill Classes. I had Slaver-3, Soldier-2 and Hunting -1. My hope was to be able to strip-em, whip-em and shove a buttplug up their ass from the outset to get their Corruption up ASAP, and it mostly worked, though some (like Mae for some reason) are especially resistant to that butt-plug (it wasn't her traits either, I've tried it with many different Maes and had the same problem).

I get what you're saying about sacrificing Skill Classes to get more Traits, that's my basic inclination as well (don't pay for what you can train, take what can't be obtained later) but was just pointing out in an Ironman game being able to fight from the outset with little fear of permanent deaths is kind of an 'Enhanced' trait as well if you think about it.

Oh nice. I hadn't tried that. I did try a game where I took the Stiffness penalty and then also boosted my Dex to more than 200 at character creation. If you do that, your Dex gets immediately reduced to 70 right after you click start game. Didn't try it again without Stiffness. Good to know that's an option.

As for fighting without deaths in Ironman, the issue there as I see it is the worst case scenarios. Eventually your followers are going to face a situation where they're low on health and then take a big hit. In that scenario even with Hulk armor they're going to die. So I don't think it's avoidable unless you only ever do easy fights. For instance a tier 7 bounty you're going to sometimes face cyber cannon wielding opponents (2 of them in the same battle sometimes in fact). It's not remotely possible to survive that in an ironman game. You can kill and/or capture 1 of those guys in the first round sometimes but there's no way you're getting both of them in 1 round, at least not without miniguns.

 

[Gunner Rey]

Oh nice. I hadn't tried that. I did try a game where I took the Stiffness penalty and then also boosted my Dex to more than 200 at character creation. If you do that, your Dex gets immediately reduced to 70 right after you click start game. Didn't try it again without Stiffness. Good to know that's an option.

As for fighting without deaths in Ironman, the issue there as I see it is the worst case scenarios. Eventually your followers are going to face a situation where they're low on health and then take a big hit. In that scenario even with Hulk armor they're going to die. So I don't think it's avoidable unless you only ever do easy fights. For instance a tier 7 bounty you're going to sometimes face cyber cannon wielding opponents (2 of them in the same battle sometimes in fact). It's not remotely possible to survive that in an ironman game. You can kill and/or capture 1 of those guys in the first round sometimes but there's no way you're getting both of them in 1 round.

Yeah, I read one of your posts while I was experimenting with that strat and added 'Stiffness' with a smug look on my face (thirty more points to spend!) only to see that starting screen with all my Dex wiped away.

My strategy involved staying away from Tier-7 bounties! Don't fight anyone you can't basically dismantle in the opening round. There is no substitute for absolute victory with minimal risk--that's the Ironman anthem!

 

[khumak]

Yeah, I read one of your posts while I was experimenting with that strat and added 'Stiffness' with a smug look on my face (thirty more points to spend!) only to see that starting screen with all my Dex wiped away.

My strategy involved staying away from Tier-7 bounties! Don't fight anyone you can't basically dismantle in the opening round. There is no substitute for total victory with minimal risk, that's the Ironman anthem!

Yeah Tier 6 bounties would even still be doable, but not tier 7. I imagine the rebellion might be a problem though. I suspect for an Ironman game what I would probably do is train up some random scrubs specifically for the rebellion fights to be disposable. Aria is scripted to be immortal in those fights I believe. So if you get all your disposable scrubs killed during the rebellion, no big deal and then you've got some mini guns for your uniques to use.

Regarding Mountain Man and dex, one last thing I still haven't tried is to see if the bonus for solo training as a Lone Wolf is enough to matter. Someone said you can train past 60 as a mountain man anyway and it's just harder but I'm not sure if that means the caps are unaffected or just lower? I usually don't prioritize dex that much so I frequently wind up starting over before I ever do even 1 dex training session.

 

[Gunner Rey]

Yeah Tier 6 bounties would even still be doable, but not tier 7. I imagine the rebellion might be a problem though. I suspect for an Ironman game what I would probably do is train up some random scrubs specifically for the rebellion fights to be disposable. Aria is scripted to be immortal in those fights I believe. So if you get all your disposable scrubs killed during the rebellion, no big deal and then you've got some mini guns for your uniques to use.

Regarding Mountain Man and dex, one last thing I still haven't tried is to see if the bonus for solo training as a Lone Wolf is enough to matter. Someone said you can train past 60 as a mountain man anyway and it's just harder but I'm not sure if that means the caps are unaffected or just lower? I usually don't prioritize dex that much so I frequently wind up starting over before I ever do even 1 dex training session.

By the way, who is Aaron?' I read that name recently but couldn't think of who that was.

I think it will still increase, but you might run into a a lower cap as the penalty will make it impossible to succeed past around 80-100, one of the code boffins could probably tell you for sure.

I've not done the Rebellion yet, my old Rise from the Ashes run was almost completely played when you couldn't capture more than one of each sex, as a result I looked at the manpower requirements to start it and whimpered, even if I dissolved my force at Fort Sera I was still something like 500 short, and didn't want to grind it out with that character anymore, since then I've been restarting before I get there. This last one I'll probably give up on now as I think I ran into some kind of cap on Manip as I can't seem to increase it past 208, (even with books) meaning all that pumping Manip in character creation to start with 190 was a waste.

But it means I'll have more points to spend this next time--yay!

 

[khumak]

By the way, who is Aaron?' I read that name recently but couldn't think of who that was.

This guy. He's the brawler you can pick up at Kymanto hall and is available on day 1. His stats start off low but he's guaranteed berserker, warrior, scavenger and can randomly also get malevolent and brawler. He's also Herculean so you can train him up to 130 strength.

I've not done the Rebellion yet, my old Rise from the Ashes run was almost completely played when you couldn't capture more than one of each sex, as a result I looked at the manpower requirements to start it and whimpered, even if I dissolved my force at Fort Sera I was still something like 500 short, and didn't want to grind it out with that character anymore, since then I've been restarting before I get there. This last one I'll probably give up on now as I think I ran into some kind of cap on Manip as I can't seem to increase it past 208, meaning all that pumping Manip in character creation to start with 190 was a waste.

But it means I'll have more points to spend this next time--yay!

Some of the rebellion fights are on a par with the tier 7 bounties when it comes to difficulty, maybe even tougher. You're not doing those without losing anyone even if everyone is wearing hulk armor and you're packing 2 cyber cannons.

 

[Gunner Rey]

This guy. He's the brawler you can pick up at Kymanto hall and is available on day 1. His stats start off low but he's guaranteed berserker, warrior, scavenger and can randomly also get malevolent and brawler. He's also Herculean so you can train him up to 130 strength.

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Some of the rebellion fights are on a par with the tier 7 bounties when it comes to difficulty, maybe even tougher. You're not doing those without losing anyone even if everyone is wearing hulk armor and you're packing 2 cyber cannons.

Thanks for the info. I did look at that guy and he seemed less useful than Truls or Cassius so I didn't bite. I haven't seen anything about Berserker, how new is that and what does it do?

 

[khumak]

Thanks for the info. I did look at that guy and he seemed less useful than Truls or Cassius so I didn't bite. I haven't seen anything about Berserker, how new is that and what does it do?

I think he's currently the only NPC who can get it. It's essentially Master Sniper for melee. He gets an extra d20 for melee damage. I like to put both Aaron and Cassius in my A team once I get him trained up because those 2 are by far the best at capturing hulk armored opponents with a whip when I get to that point, aside from MC of course if he's got the right traits.

 

[Gunner Rey]

I think he's currently the only NPC who can get it. It's essentially Master Sniper for melee. He gets an extra d20 for melee damage. I like to put both Aaron and Cassius in my A team once I get him trained up because those 2 are by far the best at capturing hulk armored opponents with a whip when I get to that point, aside from MC of course if he's got the right traits.

Oh yes, I do see the attraction! Thanks for the info, I'll consider him this next run and for that reason.

Too bad he can't get 'Deadly Strike' too....that would really be a one man capture machine.

 

[Fauno36]

"Estudios GD, publicación: 15116062, miembro: 4380030"
Sold my crossbow, spent all money buying that Scandi girl. Bandit tolls everywhere. Ranged skill 25. All I could do was taking shifts at "The Sludge".

While some choices weren't strategically "perfect", I did eventually rise from the ashes. A very fun playthrough that touched on all early/mid-game aspects. Things that would've passed unnoticed if I'd cheated. (Again, remember these are words from an ironman masochist.)


Speaking of masochists, this week I just started, for the umpteenth time, MoR, in Grimdark mode and Dying World.
I'm obsessed with the idea of achieving the perfect start, for the perfect game!!!

 

[khumak]

Oh yes, I do see the attraction! Thanks for the info, I'll consider him this next run and for that reason.

Too bad he can't get 'Deadly Strike' too....that would really be a one man capture machine.

Yeah no kidding. My last game I tried an all girl Crackshot squad as my A team and that was fun but none of them were strong enough to consistently do more than 0 damage with a whip on Hulk armored opponents so I was pretty much entirely reliant on MC for that. I also had issues with advanced tactics deciding that MC is the main tank pretty often. If I have Cassius, he's usually the main tank over MC. The girl boss squad was still fun though. Combat focused wife, Kelly, Milou, and Iona. The other issue there is that only 1 of those is guaranteed to be available early and she's not guaranteed crackshot unless you save scum her. 4 crackshots with miniguns though (5 if you count MC) is a LOT of damage...

 

[Quickpawmaud]

I am not sure why you fixate on gameplay benefits as being somehow categorically different from advance access. They are both benefits. If you really believe that Patreon is a marketplace with developers selling products, I think that you misunderstand Pateon and patronage in general.

A patron is paying so that a product can be made. Not for them (paying for exclusive access is just purchasing) but for everyone. Patron patronize because they want to see the products of their clients finished, not because they get products for their own exclusive use. I'm a patron of Grim because I want to reward developers that focus on making games fun and interesting all the time. Those developers are extremely rare here, where most developers rely on grind or twitch minigames to pad their slender storytelling.

I have been a patron of people who paint 40k miniatures for one month so they would paint a mini for me and send it to me. I have also been a patron for one month for other services like that for different things. People sell and pay for a variety of things for a variety of reasons. If it was for zero reward or benefit then yeah it is purely to support development and the creator. When benefits and rewards are involved then a lot of people will be paying for those rewards rather than purely for support. I think this is very easy to understand.

 

[Gunner Rey]

Yeah no kidding. My last game I tried an all girl Crackshot squad as my A team and that was fun but none of them were strong enough to consistently do more than 0 damage with a whip on Hulk armored opponents so I was pretty much entirely reliant on MC for that. I also had issues with advanced tactics deciding that MC is the main tank pretty often. If I have Cassius, he's usually the main tank over MC. The girl boss squad was still fun though. Combat focused wife, Kelly, Milou, and Iona. The other issue there is that only 1 of those is guaranteed to be available early and she's not guaranteed crackshot unless you save scum her. 4 crackshots with miniguns though (5 if you count MC) is a LOT of damage...

Try Rebecca, savescum Brawler if you want but she's still a melee menace without it, and train her Strength to 120. I do it about every game. Bitch hits harder than me if I don't get a crit.

She starts with a Discipline of 70 so she's easy to train and is guaranteed to get Malevolent and Warrioress. You can run into many randoms with better starting melee and strength, but you'd probably have to savescum forever to get a combination as good as Rebecca in the long term. Even Kate and the ex-Arena champ seldom start with a decent Discipline.

 

[Quickpawmaud]

Yeah no kidding. My last game I tried an all girl Crackshot squad as my A team and that was fun but none of them were strong enough to consistently do more than 0 damage with a whip on Hulk armored opponents so I was pretty much entirely reliant on MC for that. I also had issues with advanced tactics deciding that MC is the main tank pretty often. If I have Cassius, he's usually the main tank over MC. The girl boss squad was still fun though. Combat focused wife, Kelly, Milou, and Iona. The other issue there is that only 1 of those is guaranteed to be available early and she's not guaranteed crackshot unless you save scum her. 4 crackshots with miniguns though (5 if you count MC) is a LOT of damage...

How can you have a "tank"? Enemies target whoever they want no? I don't know about any sort of aggro mechanic.

 

[khumak]

Try Rebecca, savescum Brawler if you want but she's still a melee menace without it, and train her Strength to 120. I do it about every game. Bitch hits harder than me if I don't get a crit.

She starts with a Discipline of 70 so she's easy to train and is guaranteed to get Malevolent and Warrioress. You can run into many randoms with better starting melee and strength, but you'd probably have to savescum forever to get a combination as good as Rebecca in the long term. Even Kate and the ex-Arena champ seldom start with a decent Discipline.

Yeah Rebecca is guaranteed to be good in combat from a trait standpoint. Combat focused wife is actually an absolute beast if you save scum her since she can have Crackshot, Brawler, Warrior, and Malevolent. Strength is her only problem. I don't think Kelly can get Brawler but I believe she's a guaranteed Crackshot and can be trained up as a warrior if she doesn't have it. Milou is a Crackshot, Warrior, and has Ammo pack. Too bad she can't get Malevolent or Brawler. I forget what Iona gets other than Crackshot and since she's only obtainable as a capture during the rebellion fights on the mastersphere she's really not a save scum option. Even moreso than Milou (I think her traits are set in stone anyway). So of the above, combat focused wife can actually get to where she can capture Hulk armored opponents if she has all the traits, especially if she's an Aesir worshipper but most of the others aren't really going to get to that point consistently.

Aria you actually MUST take on the rebellion fights so if you wanted to you could save scum her to have brawler, malevolent and warrior but she won't be a crackshot.

I'll be interested to see what the new paragon, Clea has when she's available. I would assume she'll have some nice combat goodies.

 

[khumak]

How can you have a "tank"? Enemies target whoever they want no? I don't know about any sort of aggro mechanic.

For normal fights it's just random. For advanced tactics fights they target based on threat level and the armor everyone is wearing. I'm not sure about the exact formula, but in my games Cassius is consistently the main tank most of the time for advanced tactics. He's the first one taken out in an advanced tactics fight every single time. The 2nd in line behind him is harder to pinpoint since most fights I don't lose a 2nd person but it's usually my combat focused wife if she's properly trained up. I would assume this is because she's basically a female version of Cassius from a stats and traits standpoint. He's stronger, otherwise they have the same stats and combat traits. Most other people are missing at least 1 of those traits.

 

[WombatCombat450]

Is there a list of all quests somewhere?

I'm worried I might have gone a bit overboard raising everyone's corruption and it's possible they won't talk about their background/hopes (IE I may not be able to get those quests?)

Just want to know if I'm missing anything.

 

[tsap]

Is there a list of all quests somewhere?

I'm worried I might have gone a bit overboard raising everyone's corruption and it's possible they won't talk about their background/hopes (IE I may not be able to get those quests?)

Just want to know if I'm missing anything.

Is there a list of the quests you already have accomplished, so the folks here could check what you might possibly be currently missing?
In case there aren't (yet), the following might still be somewhat helpful:

You must be registered to see the links

The World/Quests (Quest Wiki)

 

[Clemency]

How can you have a "tank"? Enemies target whoever they want no? I don't know about any sort of aggro mechanic.

There is an aggro mechanic and it seems to be based directly on your follower's max health, ranged combat stat, and melee combat stat. Certain weapons add additional aggro, with the highest I can see being the plasma rifle (it really should not in my opinion; this weapon is hardly my choice for fighting unless I want to decay enemy armor to capture them). If they are not wearing high tier armor (duraplate, HULC, or WEGA) and they have strong stats, they are more likely to be targeted too.

In my team (Kelly + Einar + Dexter/Milou/Aaron + Cassius), Cassius tanks, then Einar in the rare cases Cassius falls. The reason my Einar tanks over Aaron is that my Einar has higher combat stats total. (I did not train Aaron a lot in Ranged).

 

[HereandNow2022]

I have been a patron of people who paint 40k miniatures for one month so they would paint a mini for me and send it to me. I have also been a patron for one month for other services like that for different things. People sell and pay for a variety of things for a variety of reasons. If it was for zero reward or benefit then yeah it is purely to support development and the creator. When benefits and rewards are involved then a lot of people will be paying for those rewards rather than purely for support. I think this is very easy to understand.

You, for whatever reason, seem to think you can tell us why we support the Dev. That is some top-tier main character syndrome you've got going on. As Grim himself has tried to explain, the supporter benefits are a tiny part of the overall contents of the game.