Posted July 24, 2017
timppu: One thing I read today in a FAQ but didn't know about is that you can save perk picking later, you don't have to necessarily pick them when they come available? If that is true, I will definitely postpone picking perks in lower levels because I recall picking some not so useful perks early on simply because nothing more interesting was available, and then later hoping to be able to pick more perks as important perks became available.
This is true, you just have to exit out of the character screen and the perks menu will pop up next time you go back into it. Skill points don't all have to be distributed either. timppu: I don't quite understand the recruitment system though. Doesn't it make sense to pick all your recruits early on and stick to them, because then you get to choose what kinds of perks they pick and what skills they develop when they level up on early levels? If you recruit veterans later, they always have some stupid or useless perks pre-selected, like some hand-to-hand perks, or perks that don't even work right in the game.
It makes more sense in tough guy mode. Sure getting recruits with weapon skills aren't a problem but it's the loss of auxiliary skills that could be a problem. For instance in my last play through, I lost 2 medics to ambushes. If I can't just reload whenever I screw up, I will need to replace him with another medic but I would be screwed if I didn't have access to any new medics. There's also the problem with some recruits having technical skills but useless (or no) combat skills or have poor stats or traits. If you lose a man or two on a mission, you will want to sift through the dead weight to get the better recruits.
I remember in my last playthough I had Stoma and his low agility and bruiser trait can be a real liability. However, he was one of the best recruits I had at the time (for big guns), everyone else in the bunker was just dead weight. With Stoma, you definitely want to get the mutate perk and get rid of his bruiser trait. Gaining +2 STR at the loss of 2 action points (or -4 AGI) is a terrible trade off!!!
timppu: You get Farsight and Stitch in the first mission, and in my earlier play I stick to them through the whole game. I felt they had pretty good perks and traits and I saw no reason to replace them. Farsight became my second best sniper and energy weapon user (only second to my main character), and Stich was the medic and lockpicker, but still pretty good with weapons too (not too good perception, though).
I also kept Farsight but I think I lost Stitch in my last playthrough :P Brian is also a very good recruit you get early on, late game i tagged him with energy weapons as when the big guns he can use stopped being effective, he still had a ton of skill points in reserve. Kept him till the end of the game and replacing him with a higher ranking recruit would have been tough to do. A lot of new recruits come with stats, traits or skills i don't want. The worst traits by far are bruiser and glowing one, ugh!!