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[Potman]

In the version before last, I usually went Cateye x2, Eagle Eye x2, and maxed Hellrunner and TaN in my leisure after that. I dropped Cateye in the last version, because Inituition x3 was so much more useful. So it went Eagle Eye x2, Inituition x3, and Hellrunner/TaN.

Nowadays I've dropped Inituition as well, because I can't hit enemies anymore unless I can see them. I will still always, with a few exceptions, pic Eagle Eye as my starting trait. This is because without it either I can't hit a shit, or I have to go aggressive and the enemies will hit me. Only exceptions to the rule are AoB (Brute) and if I plan to play with Shotgun (Reloader). I pick Eagle Eye before Son of a Gun even on AoM.
Since both Cateye and Inituition are nerfed now, I won't bother putting another point for EE, instead going for TaN and Stonewall/Badass - whatever it's called nowadays - or Finesse and Whizkid - even if I still have no idea whatsoever about those modslots.
On AoB I'd first go Brute x2, and then max Berserker and Hellrunner in some randon way. On AoM I'd continue - after that one EE - With SoaG x2, Dualgunner, SoaG, Finesse x2. And if I'm playing with shotgun, it'll be Reloader x2, Shottyman, Hellrunner x3.

Edit: Oh, and on Angel of Purity I will never go TaN, because Badass is worthless since there's no way for me to get my life past 100% in the first place.

[Rook]

Well, in the old version, I usually went max TaN, then Ironman. In this version, I like to have fun with chainguns with two levels in SoaB, then max Triggerhappy, max SoaB, then max Finesse (If I can live that long).

I usually put 2 levels in SoaG on my AoM runs, if only for Dualgunner. However, I've been noticing lately that my shots seem to be weaker once I get the second level in it. With 1 in SoaG, I can kill imps with 3 bullets at most. Yet, with 2 levels in SoaG, while on Aggressive, I suddenly need 4-5 to kill every single one, and I've emptied entire clips into demons and still had them charging at me.

Long story short, I may take your idea and put some ranks into Eagle Eye first.

[TFoN]

I've been playing around with Finesse, EE and Juggler, and am thinking of trying out Cateye. Intuition is still very useful (the 50% miss rate's almost trivial when you know where your enemies are exactly, and that only costs 1 rank - the other 2 have their own advantages which haven't been reduced at all), but I've picked up the habit of avoiding it while learning to survive without it on 985. Wizzkid's great, especially with such useful requirements, which also open another great advanced trait, namely Juggler.

I don't like Triggerhappy for reasons I had described elsewhere.

EDIT:

If that's what Triggerhappy does, I'm not sure it fits my purposes. Or maybe it does, but I'll have to carry around a secondary weapon when conserving ammo is crucial. I mean, 7 (TH(1), CG) to 12 (TH(2), PR!) shots on a former foo...? Sounds almost worse than being hit while firing twice. And consider that Finesse(2) will not only allow for more controlled bursts of only slightly fewer shots/tick, it also opens 2 advanced traits to pick from, both of which are very much worth having. My basic calculation (I'm not aware enough of game mechanics to assure its accuracy) tells me that while TH(1) gives a CG a 20% increase in shots/tick, Finesse gives a 10% increase while keeping it better controlled at 5 shots per turn.

[Potman]

Intuition is still very useful (the 50% miss rate's almost trivial when you know where your enemies are exactly, and that only costs 1 rank - the other 2 have their own advantages which haven't been reduced at all),

Sure, but for me, the main reason to pick Inituition is to snipe all those enemies from afar before they can even see me. Since that's taken away, I won't bother with all those other advantages, instead picking up something else altogether.

Wizzkid's great, especially with such useful requirements,

Unfortunately for me, I never manage to find advanced weapons at all. Or if I do, they're something like Advanced shotgun when I'ven't picked Shottyman. It's never Advanced chaingun or plasma rifle, which'd be the most useful ones. Sucks.

In another matter, if I play AoM and manage to find another Advanced pistol, how can I choose which pistol I put my mods on?

which also open another great advanced trait, namely Juggler.

I'm not a big fan of this one, since I usually keep plasma rifle on my hands all the time: If they're some really nasty guys, fine. I'll just blast them to pieces. If they're something less dangerous, I'll easily shrug off their pathetic attacks while switching to chaingun.

[TFoN]

In another matter, if I play AoM and manage to find another Advanced pistol, how can I choose which pistol I put my mods on?

That's a damn good question :P  Luckily (or unluckily, as it means I haven't found any second advanced pistols :P ), I haven't ecountered this problem just yet...

which also open another great advanced trait, namely Juggler.

I'm not a big fan of this one, since I usually keep plasma rifle on my hands all the time: If they're some really nasty guys, fine. I'll just blast them to pieces. If they're something less dangerous, I'll easily shrug off their pathetic attacks while switching to chaingun.

Well, I'm more of a pull-out-that-RL-and-kill-everything-which-is-far-from-me kinda' guy ^^
I like knowing that when my CG can't deal with everything at once, I can rest assured that my RL'll push most targets away, allowing me to better deal with them as they re-enter my LOS. By not wasting any turns I gain a LOT. Also, Juggler in its current incarnation can effectively work like my suggested Massacre Man trait, allowing any ranged weapon to be dual-wielded with a CS, as you can switch to strike at any given time as long as one of your held weapons is a chainsaw. What's more is that it can do the same with the LS, which can then work as extended tactics as you switch to it, at no cost in time, whenever you don't intend on firing a weapon - gaining 6 AC points.

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

Note that the Intuition nerf is a very discreet one:
-- the 50% misschance isn't big
-- the true nerf comes from the fact that damaged out-of-LOS enemies come directly at you now (instead of aimless wandering)

[Potman]

50% isn't big? Because it sounds pretty big to me, and I indeed can't hit anything in the dark anymore.

And however it is, Inituition is now, for me, pretty useless.

[Firstblood]

Standard build:
Hellrunner, Intuition, Ironman, Juggler
... I always try to take some Hellrunner, and Ironman.
... The Intuition path is still too useful to ignore, although CatEye is a good alternative now.
... Juggler, for same reasons as TFoN.
 (RL and instant swap to CG/PR, or instant swap back to RL)
 (or instant swap to DSG/CS for close encounters, and swap back)
 (or instant swap to from one emptied PR to another in really dangerous close encounters)

AoB:
Berserker, Hellrunner, Ironman, Tough as Nails
... this is pretty much standard for any melee character

AoMr:
Hellrunner, Intuition, Son of a Gun, Whizkid
... sniping with pistols

AoLt:
Berserker, Hellrunner, Intuition, Ironman
... weaker melee fighter with foresight n CG/RL to balance weakness


My opinions on my least used traits:

TaN: I can't say much against this, as I've never used it apart from in N! run, where it was essential, but as its use is probably very dependent on how much damage you take, I prefer Ironman. I can see situations where TaN is better though.

Rel: Very useful in 0.985. Still useful in 0.987, but if you have an advanced weapon, you can do better with WK.

Cat: Int[3] was more useful in 0.985, at least on UV where you had lots of traits. Have to play more 0.987 games before I can judge this one.

Shottyman: Shotguns are a bit more useful in 0.987 with the new AI, but still the weakest type of weapons IMO. Shottyman trait as a function rocks though.

Badass: 2-3 levels of this trait seems too much to me. 1 level might make it too good. This trait would be more useful with just one level, and a very slow or non-existant health degen, or very slow health degen down to 150% and then stop at 150%. Although I've never taken it, I'm basing this purely on the fact that you need 3 levels of Badass to get the health degen to stop, so maybe its just for me that its not a good trait, as I spend a lot of turns exploring levels after I clear them. Might be more useful to other players. IMO probably the weakest trait in the game (esp. as TaN is now the requirement instead of Ironman, so less boosted health), next to SoaB, which is weak solely because it doesn't seem to work, or work as expected.

Triggerhappy: I'm not fussed about the potential ammo wastage, as I can always carry a backup shotty for the formers. This is an awesome powered trait! (the fact that is has more than one level makes it powerful as each level is a big boost on firepower) but I don't know if I will ever take it, because SoaB seems broken or almost worthless.

[TFoN]

-- the true nerf comes from the fact that damaged out-of-LOS enemies come directly at you now (instead of aimless wandering)

Which should work like a charm to lure single enemies away from the LOS of an AV, where they'll stay dead once you kill them :)
It should also work to better herd enemies into liquids, which is crucial in N!. I think that where this trait is most necessary, this is less of a nerf and more of a change.

The 50% miss rate only means twice the number of bullets. That basically means 1/2 damage, though rockets are more likely to destroy scenery and barrels are more likely to be hit if behind an off-LOS target. It still enables for some pretty sure killing with the mostly advantageously multi-shooting CG and PR (as more shots means everything's less luck-based), and SGs are unaffected. I've already taken out quite a few targets by shooting a pistol/CG up a hallway, and since it seems monster AI hasn't been changed so that they stop heading towards the center horizontal line, I've also killed by shooting, in any room, up the horizontal line closest to the center. So, IMO, this is still an excellent trait.


I love TaN, and find it to be much better than IM. I've written about that once... I'll find it in a moment.

My current problem with Badass is the Stonewall merger. As I've said in the past, anything that pushes me so far back, I'd rather be far from anyway. Other than that, it really is too expensive. Having it reduced to 2 ranks while increasing the value of the first'll probably be best. Then, again detach Stonewall and make it a one-rank 3-tile knockback reduction of strategic value.

Triggerhappy: I'm not fussed about the potential ammo wastage, as I can always carry a backup shotty for the formers. This is an awesome powered trait! (the fact that is has more than one level makes it powerful as each level is a big boost on firepower) but I don't know if I will ever take it, because SoaB seems broken or almost worthless.

I thought you said it was SoaG that's buggy. Either way (and certainly if it's both), this seems pretty extreme to have been missed all this time. Not to say that it couldn't happen. On the contrary, as EE and Brute say they give a bonus of 4 in the trait descriptions and 3 in the mortem (v0985, at least), which for me is enough to speculate. This would, however, be a very embarrassing bug to discover, as I'd commented on the usefulness of SoaB on several occasions :) On the other hand, that means I had won games with up to 3 traits wasted :P

[TFoN]

The "8 shots" must be refering to a former commando/Arach attack, but I couldn't find any mention of that earlier in the conversation. Maybe I thought there was such a comment when I orignally posted :)

1 armor for 8 shots means 16% max HPs saved, assuming you're still at 50 max HPs. That's a huge difference, aspecially if you're shot at more than once. Anyway, consider that IM is a 20% increase from 50 HPs, so the match is at least close even at just one attack, but since use of those additional 10 HPs requires healing (often a full heal, otherwise you may stay beneath the 50 HP line), TaN is more likely to come in handy. On the other hand, if you're down to 2 HPs, are still in danger, have no access to healing and happen to level-up, IM can be a life-saver :)

[...]

To truly value the weight of TaN, try playing an entire game with no armor.
3 armor means 6% maxHPs saved, which is, among others, a good chunk off Caco hits. Also, since we can probably agree that 1 point of armor isn't much to rely on, consider that 3 armor is almost 4, meaning that with TaN(3) you have indestructable, weightless, stackable near-red armor on at all times. Together with red armor, that's 7 points, you reduce damage from all monster attacks by 14% maxHPs. AA puts you at 18%. What does our AV have to say about that?

Here's the original thread.
[M|96%|Win] YAFVP - shottyman path by Zarin.
Nothing there of much relevance here, but anyway.

My idea and reasoning is that there's a very good chance for TaN(1) saving 10 HPs between full health and death, with each additional rank of TaN likewise matching each additional rank of IM.

[Firstblood]

On the contrary, as EE and Brute say they give a bonus of 4 in the trait descriptions and 3 in the mortem (v0985, at least), which for me is enough to speculate.

I think thats a good guess at the reason actually. Its hard to tell if SoaB is broken as its only +1 bonus and generally used with CG and PR which are high damage weapons, I'm not certain if SoaB is broken at all, but it doesn't seem to make much practical difference and I would have thought it should, however I'm only recording minimum and maximum shots to kill and not an exact average. I did a game trying pistols and SoaB 3 and didn't notice a difference though.

However, SoaG the +2 damage bonus is easier to see its broken, as the base damage on pistols is so low. I think someone even reported on here that SoaG lvl 2 is less damage, but I think that was just bad luck, I think its about the same damage. I started taking notes after I suspected there was no damage bonus, and they if anything confirmed my suspicions. It might be a +1 bonus, theres a big difference between +1 and +2. I think if it was actually +2, it could be very unbalanced, pistols would become uber (they already are really good with pistol based traits, it just takes a lot of traits to get them there).

Anyway from what you just said. I think that Brute was +3 /level, EE was +3 /level, SoaB was +0 /level and SoaG was +1 (or +0)/level (although Im not sure why, I remember in mortems, that the value bonus give was +1 per level of SoaB).


Its not really embarassing, its what we're here for :)
On the assumption SoaB works, then all the strategies and tactics given for SoaB are perfectly viable. I think a functionable SoaB is a very good ammo-saving plus health-saving trait, the only reason I don't take it, is it doesn't seem to any practical difference in combat.

[TFoN]

Its not really embarassing, its what we're here for :)

Ah, but I have used it so very much and have commented so happily on the difference it made on those games where I took it, that discovering that it doesn't work will simply mean that it's all placebo, and I'm the test subject 8)
Other than that, I agree :P

Bottom line is, Kornel, any chance you could go over your algorithms? There's only so much we can do with statistics :)

[TFoN]

Ah! I know how we can test damage accurately!

First of all, to start with, we have this, courtesy of BDR:

almost unhurt = 49-46 HP (98%-92%)
scratched = 45-41 HP (90%-82%)
lightly wounded = 40-36 HP (80%-72%)
wounded = 35-26 HP (70%-52%)
heavily wounded = 25-16 HP (50%-36%)
severely wounded = 17-11 HP (34%-22%)
mortally wounded = 10-6 HP (20%-12%)
almost dead = 5-1 HP (10%-2%)

He found it by standing on acid and watching his health drop ^^
We can use this chart (assuming it's true also for monsters) to better test damage per shot.

Second, I was just about to post a very peculiar bug report, which can serve our purpose perfectly. I'll elaborate right after I do.

[TFoN]

Nevermind, the rather necessary screenshots are on my other computer, so the bug post'll have to wait. The main idea is that on one of those special, rare arena levels, I could attack myself by shooting at the center of the map. Come to think of it, that might not be a bug - just a way to deter us from shooting up the center horizontal line, where monsters congregate. Anyway, using this (if it wasn't some 1-time freak case) we can almost accurately calculate damage and the such.

[Malek Deneith]

Edit: Oh, and on Angel of Purity I will never go TaN, because Badass is worthless since there's no way for me to get my life past 100% in the first place.

TFoN pretty much summed it up but I'll say it again - TaN is very, very good feat

Shottyman: Shotguns are a bit more useful in 0.987 with the new AI, but still the weakest type of weapons IMO. Shottyman trait as a function rocks though.

Weakest... yessss... repeat that after taking a point-blank shot of double shotty...

[Karry]

Weakest... yessss... repeat that after taking a point-blank shot of double shotty...

Which is, apparently, 2 or 3 times weaker than RL blast.

[Malek Deneith]

Which is, apparently, 2 or 3 times weaker than RL blast.

O'Rly?
Double Shotgun is (6d3)x2 = 12-36 (24 avg) always hitting damage at point blank
Rocket Launcher is 4d4 = 4-16 (10 avg) damage and can miss

I suggest you re-learn maths

[TFoN]

Karry's talking about this.

I suspect there's something wrong with the evidence, but it's certainly worth checking out.

[Karry]

I suggest you re-learn maths

I suggest Kornel re-learn math.
Or re-look through the code.

Or the simplest way - just change the descriptions so that weapon damage is displayed accordingly.

[Firstblood]

almost unhurt = 49-46 HP (98%-92%)
scratched = 45-41 HP (90%-82%)
lightly wounded = 40-36 HP (80%-72%)
wounded = 35-26 HP (70%-52%)
heavily wounded = 25-16 HP (50%-36%)
severely wounded = 17-11 HP (34%-22%)
mortally wounded = 10-6 HP (20%-12%)
almost dead = 5-1 HP (10%-2%)

I can confirm these are correct and work for monsters.
Its tricky and time-consuming using them to determine damage, but I was already doing that prior to this topic. So I have fairly good idea of weapon damages.

I've not used them to judge SoaB and SoaG differences though. I just use number of shots to kill to test that. You are correct in that using them would be more accurate. Its hard because damage is random, but if we can work out monsters damage to us, its not that much harder working out our damage to them, we just dont have an exact % value of their health (we only have a range as given above).

A direct hit with a rocket does indeed deal more damage than a point blank shotty blast. I'm not so sure about double shotty, but my comment about shotguns being the weakest weapon is based more on the fact, that you generally have to close with enemies to deal them much damage, which leads to loss of health, whereas with the RL, CG and PR you deal damage efficiently at long range.

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

Uhm, I wanted to remind you all that Shotgun weapons loose a lot damage each square they travel. The listed damage only applies to "face on" hit.

[Firstblood]

I'm torn between Ironman and TaN. First of all I make some assumptions.


1. 5 ways to heal to 100% and 3 ways to heal less than 100% after dlvl 4. I think the 5 ways occur more regularly, so I assume most/all heals are full ones.

2. To get 99% efficiency from TaN between heals, you need to be reduced to 2% health. This is quite risky, whereas healing with Ironman always gives an extra 10, 20 or 30 hp on top of what you have.

3. When in danger, my armor will always be at least [2]. This could be Blue armor, or damaged Red armor. Armor has been quite plentiful for me in 0.985. This is probably actually the best condition for TaN, so all my calculations have been made with this value. Having less or more than 2 armor can make TaN less valuable as explained below.

4. Almost forgot this one, but I'm assuming you're being attacked at long range, and I used average damage. Calculation for every possible damage combination from all monsters would take forever. TaN is extremely useful against melee damage, as melee damage is typically lower than ranged damage and is also in the optimal range for TaN, because its just high enough that Red Armor+TaN 3 would reduce most melee damage to 1 hp, although there is still wastage against Former Humans, Lost Souls and Arachs, as their melee damage is tiny and will be 1 hp with Red Armor regardless.


Regardless of the assumptions, there are certainties:

Ironman is the superior trait against JC, CD, AVile, Baron, HK. No matter what armor you're wearing.
These are some of the more dangerous enemies. Mancubus is probably in this list too.

TaN is "probably" the superior trait against Cacodemon, Imp and usually Shotgun Former Human.
There enemies are less dangerous than the above.


Now, you might be wondering why I haven't said TaN is always better against Arachs, Former Commandos and Former Captains. These are all high damage enemies and worth a mention. The reason is because, if you're wearing Red Armor, you will notice barely any difference at all, as most of the damage they deal to you will be reduced to 1 hp by the Red Armor, and (I'm not certain, but quite sure) TaN doesn't reduce damage of 1 hp to 0 hp.

Of course, Red Armor doesn't last forever, and this is where TaN kicks in and could save your life. I just feel that Ironman is overall more useful as it doesn't rely as much on which enemies you face and what armor you wear, and its condition. Besides in optimal conditions, when one Red Armour gets damaged, you switch to an undamaged one.


In the best case scenarios, TaN is as much as a 33-100% improvement on your ability to withstand damage. We are mainly talking Arachs, Cacodemons, Imps and Former Humans types with Blue Armor/damaged Red armor. So TaN is good if Arachnotron is your worst nemesis. There is a lot of potentional for Arachnotron caves in the later stages, and you will definitely encounter more Arachs than Archviles, so its a valid argument for TaN. Personal preference I think.

Heh I'm almost convincing myself to take TaN, but I think I'll stick with Ironman. If you have a melee fighter, TaN is considerably more worthwhile IMO, but melee fighters typically take both Ironman and TaN anyway, and when you're berserking you can kill everything in 1 hit (in fact the chainsaw is 1-2 hit kill weapon anyway), however you could still get surrounded or rush an enemy and have him hit first, so you will see the melee use of TaN more.

[Rook]

I've been curious as of late. After playing more AoM games, I've discovered that SoaG really isn't working like I think it would. The firing time reduction seems to work fine. (3 levels in this, plus 1+ in Finesse, and I can unload entire clips into monsters before they can blink) Thing is, the damage doesn't seem to work like it should. Maybe I missed something obvious here, but the wiki seems to indicate that with 2 levels in SoaG, all former humans without armor, as well as imps, should die in 2 bullets. However, 9 out of 10 times, I need 3+ bullets to kill any of them, even with 3 levels in SoaG. Is there something I've missed here (Which will make this nice little paragraph, and myself, look very stupid)? Or is there something odd about how the SoaG damage boost works?

[Karry]

Uhm, I wanted to remind you all that Shotgun weapons loose a lot damage each square they travel. The listed damage only applies to "face on" hit.

THAT is why i said "point blank", didnt i ? Shotguns are STILL weaker.

[BDR]

In another matter, if I play AoM and manage to find another Advanced pistol, how can I choose which pistol I put my mods on?

I hate to be the major buzzkiller, but as of this version it's impossible to switch pistols, and you can only put mods on your active weapon (the one in your hands ready to kill).  This means that, sadly, a second advanced pistol is actually worth just as much as a regular pistol in AoMr.  If you want to be able to pimp out two advanced pistols, you'll have to play a regular game, and you'll have to be damn lucky (or savescumming, which by the way please don't, or else God will kill a former foo before its time) too, since you won't start with any to begin with.

[DaEezT]

I hate to be the major buzzkiller, but as of this version it's impossible to switch pistols, [...]

Small correction: You never could switch weapons in AoMr, which is also why it was so damn hard in 0.9.8.5.
You can turn that pistol into a cannon if you take Wizzkid and find enough mods :)

[Thomas]

Normal game (Any difficulty, I just love this strat so.)

EE->EE->Int->Int->Int->TaN->TaN->TaN->EE->What I feel like at the time.

EE because staying in coward the whole time for 80% dodge and 95% hit is just so very nice.
Int because it's very very handy when I'm on low HP (which happens to be a lot of the time...)
TaN because you need all the armour you can get, really.

AoB/AoLT game:

Brute->Brute->Berserk->Berserk->Berserk->Brute->TaN->TaN->TaN->What I feel like at the time.

Brute so I can actually kill stuff.
Berserker so when I'm facing the AoD, there's a good chance I'll be berserk the whole way through.
TaN because you need all the armour you can get, really.

AoMr game:

SoaG->SoaG->DG->DG->SoaG->Fin->Fin->Fin->TaN->TaN

SoaG to get extra damage, super speed and DG.
DG to get double damage. (Whee, damage.)
Fin to get EVEN MORE speed! (Whee, speed.)
TaN because... you know. More armour. (Whee.)

By level 7, you're holding 2 chainguns that need to be reloaded a bit more than normal.

AoI game:

Hellrunner

Hellrunner because I am not getting to level 15 without running like the whimpy chump I am.

[Rook]

AoMr game:

SoaG->SoaG->DG->DG->SoaG->Fin->Fin->Fin->TaN->TaN

Heh...A man after my own trigger finger. Just one question...Wouldn't you technically get a bigger boost from maxing out SoaG before leveling up dualgunner again? No offense, since I like your strategy, I'm just very technical-minded sometimes.

[TFoN]

Normally yes (and this has been discussed thoroughly becuse we're are technical-minded sometimes :) ), but the SoaG damage bonus may be broken and therefore out of the calculation, giving only a speed bonus which, while entirely worthwhile, makes SoaG(2)+DG(1) better than SoaG(3).


Playing 0987 I've been exploring various new possibilities, but my favorite's likely to still involve Intuition(3). Right now I like a combination Whizkid/Intuition, topped off with an early Juggler. I haven't actually played it fully yet, but I've decided it's likely to be the best it can get. My longest game so far (out of 5-6 I've done in total) ended on Phobos Hell 1, at clvl 10. That char had the above trait list, though with Cateye(1) and TaN(1) instead of ranks in Intuition, and an advanced RL stuffed so full of mods that it made me consider just how relient we're bound to become.

[Potman]

To honor the new release, I'm gonna bump this thread.

Yeah you'd imagine that the fixed shotguns would drive me towards Reloader and Shottyman a lot nowadays, and at first I indeed messed a lot more with shotguns than I had for the entire rest of the year. However, I've also found the new working Son of a Bitch extremely seductive. So either I play with shotgun, in which case it's Reloader x2, Shottyman, Ironman x2, Badass x3, and Hellrunner x2. Or I go for chaingun/plasma, and pick Eagle Eye x1, SoaB x2, Triggerhappy x1, Finesse x3, SoaB x1, Ironman x2 - the goal is to dish out as much of hot metal in as little time as possible.

[sn0rb]

In order, Reloader I and Reloader II, Shottyman, Ironman I, Tough as Nails I and II, and the one time I got to level 7, Ironman II.

Let's just assume the following about that playthrough:
1. Walking around in Coward Mode with a double shotgun and five hundred shotgun shells was FUN. >=D
2. I got lucky to spawn a double shotgun on Phobos Base 4.
3. Having a field of fire that took up the whole screen on the (then) bugged "Monsters come at you from all directions!" level made me wish I carried a chaingun instead of a rocket launcher as my sidearm. (Don't ask.)

[modular]

For v 0.9.8.8B:

Traits I pick during my games:

- Normal game (using chaingun):
SoB->SoB->TH->TH->EE->EE->Cat->Iro->SoB->Cat->EE->Iro->

Combo 1: SoB->SoB->TH->TH->...
You need 2x SoB for TH. Triggerhappy will increase your damage by:
SoB1: 1d6x5 -> 1d7x5 (+17%)
SoB2: 1d7x5 -> 1d8x5 (+14%)
TH1:  1d8x5 -> 1d8x7 (+40%)
TH2: 1d8x7 -> 1d8x9 (+30%)
Total: 1d6x5 -> 1d8x9 (+140%)

Combo 2: ...->EE->EE->Cat->...
To further multiply the damage output I take EE. 2x EE lets me take Cat and that wil increase my range. Note that Cat is much cheaper than intuition wich requires 3 traits to detect monsters.

Iro is for survivability, and the effect is multiplied by using health packs/orbs (more hp is regenerated= more dmg prevention).

- Angel of Berserk:
Bru->Bru->Ber->Ber->Ber->Iro->Iro->EE->Iro->

- Agel of Marksmanship:
SoG->SoG->SoG->Fin->Fin->Iro->WK->WK->Iro->EE->EE->Cat

Once you get to WK1 and WK2 you can start adding mods till you get this:
advanced pistol (2d7) [13/13] (D3R3S3M3)
This is why one gun is so much more powerfull than choosing dualgunner, so don't take DG.

Ironman wil fix your low HP, and EE/Cat wil give you more acc/range, after that your unstopable.

Traits, and what they do

- Ironman adds 10 hp to your 50 base hp, this means a 20% increase (also makes health packs/orbs 20% more effective)
- Tough as nails adds 1 armour to your base armour of 1-2-4-6, adding 100%-50%-25%-17%

- Finesse adds 10% speed (x2 needed for Whizkid)
- Whizkid lets you add enhancements, 4 for advanced weapons, increasing this ability is worth 4 traits for the price of one.

- Son of a bitch adds one damage, for a chaingun this is a 17% increase, for a pistol a 25% increase the first lvl

- Eagle Eye adds 4 points to chance to hit, im not sure what % increase that is
- Cateye adds one range to your view, essential for not getting hit

- Son of a gun +1 dmg and +20% speed for pistol, ~45% increase

[Kjoery]

I love wizkid. 3 mods to a regular weapon generally is all the mods that I need anyways, giving me a rocket launcher with 3 reload before the wall (if I'm lucky) and a chaingun with 3 speed. Good fun.

[commodorejohn]

Depends on what kind of game I'm playing. If I'm just straight-out looking to win the game, I progressively max out Tough As Nails, Ironman, and Eagle Eye (since I'm usually using the chaingun in such games, and it's much more effective if you actually hit what you're aiming at.) If I'm taking one of my attempts at beating the game with only shotguns and the rocket launcher, I'll start with two levels of Reloader, Shottyman, and then Ironman or TAN depending on my whim. Finally, if I'm taking a crack at Angel Of Marksmanship (my favorite challenge mode,) I get two levels of Son Of A Gun, max out Dualgunner, max out SoaG, and then throw whatever's left into Ironman or TAN.