gbayles on 19/4/2002 at 14:09
Are some of the aug choices unbalanced? First time through I'd assumed they were balanced and it was matter of choosing according to the player's desired style of
play - not a matter of being right or wrong. The discussion of bio-energy drain had several comments that choosing the Artificial Heart over the Power Recirculator is an error. I concur - whatever the style of play.
Now I believe some of the other aug choices "wrong" - and first time through I managed to pick them all except the Heart.
- Regeneration is right
- Cloaking is right
- Enchanced Targeting is wrong
- Aqualung is wrong
Others?
Cyborg on 19/4/2002 at 14:57
Quote:
- Enchanced Targeting is wrong
What do you mean with that? Enchanced Targeting is very good aug. You can do some nice things with it.
Amorpheus on 19/4/2002 at 16:51
I thought the aug balancing in DX was very bad for most - some are easy decisions(Healing or Environmental Protection? Please!), some are hard because both have little use, and only a few I really had to ponder about. Like the leg aug: speed vs. stealth... but <i>that</i> only depends on your playing style.
ICEBreaker on 19/4/2002 at 17:45
No, actually the worst possible choice of the lot is chosing the silent run augmentation over the speed enhancement. The silent run augmentation is basically redundant because the speed ehancement augmentation can emulate the silent run augmentation (by crawling) with the additional advantage of being able to jump high and fall from a great height. You achieve similar speeds of you speed crawl or silent run. The silent run augmentation can only do one thing which the speed enhancement augmentation cannot and that is to jump down silently. Not many places in the game requires this. By the way, grammatically speaking it should be silent run<b>ning</b> augmentation. Of course this could give the allusion that the augmentation itself is silent or that it makes other augmentation run silently without the mechanical humming.
faetal on 19/4/2002 at 18:24
[spoiler]Speed run over silent run
enhanced strength over enhanced melee strength (melee attack can be upgraded in skills and enhanced strength allows you to lift big heavy things like large metal crates)
Aggressive defense over EMP drone (lots of things fire rockets at you later in the game and that darn drone moves too slow (but is very cool))
Healing over environmental protection
Cloaking over energy weapon protection
Ballistic protection over radar invisibility
Enhanced vision over enhanced targeting.[/spoiler]
I think that's it. That was all from memory so don't complain if I have gotten some the names/combos wrong.
fætal.
Anarkos on 19/4/2002 at 21:50
ICE - you can't emulate running while crawling, even on maximum Speed Boost.
Also, don't underestimate:
Drone - if people see you to shoot you, something's wrong; the drone, however, can "spy" and blast bots with EMP.
Shields - on the max level, Ballistic Protection and Energy Shield are awesome. You won't need Regeneration, as you won't take much damage!
Combate Stength: Add a decent melee skill, and cameras/doors shatter...
CHILLman on 19/4/2002 at 23:00
I happened to find Run Silent + Electric Prod a very effective combo throughout the game (even the advanced MJ12 cyborgs fall in a single charge), though I don't know how fast you can go with full speed upgrade crouched. I also wouldn't underestimate the importance of jumping down silently. The game doesn't have the most flawless ladder system in the world. You practically always make noise when walking off of one. The solutuion, of course, is Run Silent. The usefulness mostly depends on how stealthy you're really trying to be, but when I'm being at all stealthy, Run Silent is my choice. But how fast can you actually go when crouching with the full speed upgrade (how close is it to just running)?
*edit* As for cloaking vs. radar spoofing, radar spoofing could potentially be more useful if you beefed up your environmental training skill (high proficiency with armor). That being the case, you could just stock up on termoptic camo armor and use it only when you really need it. This way, you could get by anything when you really need to. But on the all, cloaking is probably still the better option, especially since Environmental Training is really one of the more useless skills in the game, and I'd only pay any heed to it if I were playing like a "no weapon" mode or something (which would also give you plenty of space to stock up on the camo armor).
Amorpheus on 20/4/2002 at 05:05
Quote:
Originally posted by ICEBreaker No, actually the worst possible choice of the lot is chosing the silent run augmentation over the speed enhancement. The silent run augmentation is basically redundant because the speed ehancement augmentation can emulate the silent run augmentation (by crawling) with the additional advantage of being able to jump high and fall from a great height.Absolutely wrong. You're still quite a bit from running speed there, and the ability to also move silently no matter what you do is not to be underrestimated for a sneaker.
ICEBreaker on 20/4/2002 at 11:59
Ha ha, fine OK OK.
Edit: Man so much opposition!!
Straylight on 20/4/2002 at 23:01
* Aqualung or Environmental Resistance
* EMP Shield or Ballistic Protection
The only two I really think are "wrong" choices are Aqualung and EMP Shield. Spend a couple skill points on Trained Swimming skill while you're still on Liberty Island (it's certainly cheap enough) and you shouldn't have any need for Aqualung at all. Anywhere you would need it, there's a rebreather nearby. As for EMP, there just isn't that much of it in the game, unless you have a bad habit of catching yourself with your own EMP grenades.
* Agressive Defense System or Spy Drone
Personally, I don't have any use for Aggressive Defense System. I haven't even bothered to try it yet. Maybe next time. I like my Spy Drones. I never use them much for scouting, but I like the remote-controlled EMP attacks. They need a couple upgrades before they're useable, but they're very useful once they get to level 3 or 4. I use them to disable things with rockets before they have a chance to fire, so I really don't miss the Aggressive Defense. And I knock out any human who has a missile or grenade so I can take it for myself instead of letting them waste it blowing themselves up.
* Speed Enhancement or Run Silent
I can go either way with this one. Speed crawling and silent walking both work well enough for sneaking up on people on quiet surfaces. Run Silent has definite stealth advantages, and Deus Ex rewards stealth rather heavily. Speed Enhancement on the other hand, makes it a lot easier to reach certain places.
* Microfibral Muscle or Combat Strength
I usually go for the Microfibral Muscle, but I like both. With just a little Combat Strength and Low-Tech skill, you can knock out armored troops with one whack of the baton. Upgrade it and train Low-Tech a little more and you can smash metal doors, cameras, and even turrets with one swing of the Dragon's Tooth. That's pretty cool. Being able to lift heavy stuff does make some things easier, but not having it just means you have to do something the hard way.
I haven't found anything that really <I>requires</I> either Speed Enhancement or Microfibral Muscles. Last time I played, I didn't take either one of them, and I don't think I missed anything because of it. [SPOILER]For example, the side entrance to Castle Clinton can only be accessed by moving a heavy crate, but stacking lots of small boxes there can get you on top of the wall, which works just as well. It just requires more patience.[/SPOILER]
* Regeneration or Energy Shield
I think this one depends on the difficulty level you're playing. On low difficulty, you take less damage anyway, so you can just skip all the damage-reduction augs and use Regeneration instead. On higher difficulty levels, you just take too much damage in a full-on firefight to survive long enough for Regeneration to work. So either use the damage-reduction augs, like Energy Shield, Ballistic Protection, and Environmental Protection, or spend some skill points on Environmental Training and use ballistic armor and hazard suits. Or just avoid the full-on firefights.
* Enhanced Targeting or Vision Enhancement
I've heard that targeting works well with the Laser Sights, but I haven't tried Laser Sights yet. I like scopes. Vision Enhancement lets you see in the dark with night-vision and infrared, and see through obstacles with some kind of "sonar" vision. I might try Targeting again just to see if I can figure out exactly what "nice things" you're supposed to be able to do with it, but overall, I think Vision Enhancement is much more useful.
* Cloak or Radar Transparency
This one's straight personal preference. One makes you invisible to humans and animals, the other makes you invisible to turrets and bots. I usually go for Cloak, but they're both good.
* Synthetic Heart or Power Recirculator
This is really a question of play style, and a complicated one. It's usually one of the first things I decide, because it affects all the other augmentations. Synthetic Heart can't be upgraded, so if you spread out the rest of your aug upgrades evenly, you should be able to get them all up to level 3 before the final areas of the game. Then you have the choice of using them normally at level 3 or burning up your energy faster to use them at level 4 for a short time. That's as close as you can get to maxing all your augs without cheating.
Of course, if you have a few that you aren't all that interested in upgrading, you can distribute your upgrades differently to get your favorites up to level 4 and leave the rest at level 1 or 2. In that case you'd be better off with the Power Recirculator, so you can use even the really energy-intensive stuff like Cloak for longer periods of time without having to bother with actually using that stack of 30 bioelectric cells you've been lugging around.
It also depends on exactly which augs you have. For some augs, it doesn't matter as much how long you can use it as long as it's at a high enough level, so things like Speed Enhancement or Combat Strength will benefit more from Synthetic Heart. Others, like Spy Drone or Regeneration, are more effective if you can use them longer, so they benefit more from Power Recirculator.
