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[kcwong]

http://www.gearheadrpg.com/

Anyone playing it?

I played GH1 before, and IIRC finished it once. I started on GH2 a few days ago.

I notice the official forum (http://www.gearheadrpg.com/forum/) has a minute amount of activity, and that Joseph is working on some large changes (switching to Lua, rework many game mechanisms).

But from the victory dumps in the forum it seems GH2 is very much playable at this stage. Unfortunately, the documentation, forum and wiki don't have a lot of information about GH2 - most information are either outdated or are for GH1. The Wikia page is empty, and the Yahoo! group seems to be deserted.

I have several questions:

1. Leadership skill is gone... it is used to increase max. number of lancemates and shared XP in GH1. How do I get more lancemates in GH2? New lancemate slots are earned by doing quests.

2. Is there a way to increase stats in GH2? I can increase stats in GH2.

3. Is the amount of XP required for a new talent different from GH1? (I haven't reached 10K XP in GH2 yet)

4. What places do you suggest a new character to visit to train up?

5. Are the good early weapons/mecha from GH1 still good in GH2?

6. Is there anything I can do about my lancemate jumping/flying and crashing all the time? If I don't give them jets they won't be able to fight with me in space.

I have 23 renown and what seems to be the main quest owned me pretty hard. I have one lancemate, and both of us are piloting Ice Wind, with only body armor and some medium range weapons.

Here's my save: http://www.box.net/shared/24oorbvbhg (No registration required)

[Omegastick]

Looks cool, downloading now.

[Il Palazzo]

Damn, I'm gonna play this again.

3. I think it's the same, or at least very similar. Not 100% sure though.

4. I always like to clear the locations in Theles Spinner(derelict warship/abandoned mine in space; the abandoned building; the service way to middle level) and Caley(?) Rock(the mine - just don't go too deep. Once armoured fungi and hunters show up, you better scram; the combat arena there is also pretty much the easiest one).
If you're not very much personal combat oriented, then you can always do the random mecha missions, which always scale with your renown.

5. Can't help you there. Been too long since I played GH1.

6. I think there is a distinction between jet types - some let you fly in space and jump, some let you fly and skim? Check out the mecha descriptions - I'm almost certain that some of them have "space flight" attribute, and no "jump".
Alternatively, change your lancemate .

Keep in mind that cyberimplants mechanics have been revamped - you can't have as many as you could in GH1, as the associated skill is gone(as well as Cyberpsycho talent). There should be more details on the wiki, IIRC.

Also, the main quest is completeable, but the game sometimes crashes when following it - it's still free-form playable afterwards, but you can't continue the main quest

[Blaze]

3. Learning a talent costs 1,000XP, but you need 10,000XP to for each talent slot.
4. Since XP gain depends on your PV vs the opponents, I suggest you try your hand at character combat. Take one strong gun and head into an easy dungeon.
5. Generally yes, but enemies now pack a lot more missiles, particularly swarm missiles. So unless you have an ECM I suggest you stick with a long-range weapon like a railgun or gauss rifle.
6. Did you equip his mecha with flight jets or arc thrusters? They can't jump without those. If you can find some space flight jets, use those instead.

The difficulty of the main quest isn't dependent on your renown, it just gets harder as you continue.

[kcwong]

Thanks for the answers.

My character has no personal combat skills except dodge 4...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

wearing a pilot suit I triggered a fight in Black Market and got vaporized before I could move.

The only personal dungeon I managed to finish is the mines near Athera spinner.

I got lucky and finished the impossible fight I mentioned earlier... now I'm in chapter 4.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Saved cavalier's club by convincing a rich person to help us

I'm still piloting an Ice Wind. I switched my lancemate into a Puma. I have a Daum, but I couldn't make it less than -3MV yet. I think I need to install a better computer and software.

[kcwong]

I have a few more questions...

1. How do you create a robot? The Robotic skill is gone. I tried using Science on various objects (armor, repair fuel, computers) to no avail. What items do I need exactly?

2. From searching the official forum I found mention of Innovation talent, which requires 10 Mecha Engineering. But what does it do?

3. On a spinner I received a henchman's diary. It seems to require Insight skill, which I do not have. How should I continue this quest?

4. How many renown is required for the performance quest? I took "next step" twice, but I have now 50 renown and he still say I need more. How come people say that this quest is too easy to complete early on?

5. I found majority of available lancemates to be extremely weak... barely over 10 in stats, and very low skills all around. In fact I went back to my home and recruited my mother to be my second lancemate. I found one good lancemate that still has less stats than my mom, but 1 higher in most skills. He comes with a Savin, while I'm still using Daum, Trailblazer and Ice Wind... he also has combat spacesuits which I haven't seen before. Are lancemates all random, or are there places I can go to find good ones?

6. Is the amount of lancemate slots tied to the main quest? I have never added my Charm but I was able to recruit my mom after a few chapters. When will I get more?

7. When I test the new lancemates, I told my mom to quit. She refused to join back, so I reloaded. How does rejoining work? Will she agree to join if I wait a bit?

I uploaded my save here, if anyone want to take a look:
http://www.box.net/shared/2fb4uhmrrf (No registration required)

[Frumple]

Heh. Check where you crosspost on the GH forums. Answered yeh there

For everything except #4, anyway.

[beorn080]

My one gripe is that the hints you get should be a bit more specific. Its a great world, but when you have to track down Steve for more info, and all you have is his name in say the Cesena Spinner, it takes a long time.

[Blaze]

My one gripe is that the hints you get should be a bit more specific. Its a great world, but when you have to track down Steve for more info, and all you have is his name in say the Cesena Spinner, it takes a long time.

Use your phone (Shift+T) then enter his/her name to call them from anywhere; even out in space.

It'll only work if you're in the same Spinner though.

[freeformschooler]

My one gripe is that the hints you get should be a bit more specific. Its a great world, but when you have to track down Steve for more info, and all you have is his name in say the Cesena Spinner, it takes a long time.

Use your phone (Shift+T) then enter his/her name to call them from anywhere; even out in space.

It'll only work if you're in the same Spinner though.

Interestingly you indeed can call anyone -- even those in a currently antagonistic position to you. You will get a blank chat window saying "..." or something.

[beorn080]

I didn't realize that. Should have, but didn't.

Just raided a warship with a shotgun and a spacesuit, got a new mecha out of the deal. Also picked up a spare Heavy Gauss rifle, so double cool. That phone thing really helped.

It turns out, my problems were stemming from having 1 charm all the time. It really helps.

[ein]

Hey, I somehow missed this.
I should get back into GearHead.
Had a lot of custom design files for the first one that I then ported to the second, but I lost them all.
This is the only one currently in my possession.

[kcwong]

Heh. Check where you crosspost on the GH forums. Answered yeh there

For everything except #4, anyway.

Thank you Frumple.

I got the next stage in the performance quest when I had 53 renown... so perhaps he's looking for 50+. The difficulty jumps up a lot though, I can't even please a crowd with a correct song. I had 9 in Performance, 12 Charm and +2 from a violin. I guess I have to save up for that +Charm skinsuit first.

On the other hand I finally saved enough to buy a Vadal. Yay!

[Earthquake Damage]

I have several questions:

1. Leadership skill is gone... it is used to increase max. number of lancemates and shared XP in GH1. How do I get more lancemates in GH2? New lancemate slots are earned by doing quests.

2. Is there a way to increase stats in GH2? I can increase stats in GH2.

3. Is the amount of XP required for a new talent different from GH1? (I haven't reached 10K XP in GH2 yet)

4. What places do you suggest a new character to visit to train up?

5. Are the good early weapons/mecha from GH1 still good in GH2?

6. Is there anything I can do about my lancemate jumping/flying and crashing all the time? If I don't give them jets they won't be able to fight with me in space.

I have 23 renown and what seems to be the main quest owned me pretty hard. I have one lancemate, and both of us are piloting Ice Wind, with only body armor and some medium range weapons.

1.  You have a very limited number of lancemates.  IIRC you can have 1-2 to start, 1-2 from quests, plus 1 from a Talent.

2.  Last I knew, XP-related stat boosts were restricted to 10.  Your initial stats plus 10 additional points (1 for every 5000 total XP you gain) are all you get, barring cybernetics.  IIRC every 4th point of Ego allows one cyber mod without penalties.  Any more than that and you'll forever be fighting health problems.

3.  No clue.

4.  If you can survive personal scale combat, buy yourself a sealed spacesuit and visit Cayley Rock.  The caves are a decent place to grind for your first few talents/stat boosts.  Don't delve too deeply, though.

5.  Pretend you've never seen the equipment and mecha before.  The stats and mechanics have changed a lot.  Also, mecha engineering has harder limits now, so you have to optimize rather than add everything you want (kitchen sink included).  It's still very powerful, though.

6.  High piloting skill will let them avoid damage when falling off cliffs.  The jumping issue is best solved by giving them enough thrust to fly instead of jump.  Spaceflight jets are all you really need, and you do need them since so many battles are fought in space.

I think the main quest has renown-independent difficulty, so you should probably put it off for now.  Train, get better equipment and retool your mecha, and gather more/better lancemates.  You should be able to swap lancemates at any time (provided you've earned some), and with the right Talent IIRC your Friends can join your lance (any NPC who likes you enough will become a Friend).

Learn and pump the Initiative skill ASAP.  It makes a huge difference when you're limited by weapon speed (and number of weapons) rather than your own speed.  If you don't have a free skill slot, either accept the XP penalty or find some way to boost Knowledge (new skill slot every 4-5 points IIRC, but I don't know if cybernetics count).

Also, don't neglect Mecha Engineering.  Nearly all stock mecha are deliberately flawed.  Just rearranging their default loadout often yields an extra MV/TR point, and that can help a lot.  Mounted/held gear (esp. heavy weapons) have a lower weight penalty than installed ones.  Some mecha have lighter, heavier, or better armored limbs than others.  Some armor is lighter than others, including mecha-specific armor that may or may not have generic names.  Nearly every chassis has small modifiers like that.

Also, both enemies and stores sometimes have modified/themed mecha with a random selection of nonstandard, and sometimes quite powerful, gear.  You'll recognize them by their names;  things like Steel Dragon Buruburu or whatever.

[beorn080]

One thing to remember is to never dump charm. Even a few points helps, and it makes it far easier to get missions and rumors.

Whats everyone's preference on starting mecha? I find myself favoring the heavyfoot Buru Buru for its heavy gauss rifle. One shot a wraith with it and have loved it ever since.