Just wanted to chime in and say update is fantastic so far! Learn by reading is a system I wasn't super thrilled for at first, but it's been fun and I think is healthier for the game, same with all the water changes etc.
Only issue I still have that's made it across the last few alphas is that the int weapons are still in a weird spot compared to everything else. There's not Steel equivalent int melee weapon, like a Steel Baton, and there's no tier 0 and tier 3 int ranged weapon. Like yeah, you can mix other attribute weapons with the robotic turrets, but the attribute should still have it's own cohesive item set like every other attribute has
IMO the change would be fairly simple, just a steel baton that has the moveset of the pipe baton (because that moveset is freaking beautiful) and damage in the same realm as the other melee weapons but lower for balance reasons, and let it take stun baton and have the chance to stun. Late game is really weird on int where your melee options are either to chase them around like a benny hill skit with the stun baton, whacking them 50 times until they die because the stun baton does *less damage than the pipe baton* and FAR less than a steel club etc, or to just use a steel club which isn't even your on perk weapon
Likewise, ranged is missing both tier 0 and tier 3. Tier 0 could just be a blow pipe that shoots junk ammo, and tier 3 could just be something like a handheld junk turret that aimed for you or something, like a Soldier 76 ult from Overwatch. Int not having a late game weapon that you actually hold in your hands is a weird situation that in my last like 500 hours, has always ended up with me just using a shotgun in 99% of situations even though I really want to "be an int character"
Learn by Reading and the new systems help the other attributes, but Int still feels like this weird red headed step child attribute that has several different things going on at once that kind of ignore each other. Pipe Baton is super cool but gets out scaled hard and fast, and doesn't actually interact with the Junk sledge or stun baton so it's like . . .wut? And then Int doesn't even have a ranged option at all besides the junk turret which is neat but not competitive with the actual end game weapons. When I tested it in a20, two junk turrets would literally drain about 10,000 to 15,000 iron doing a tier 5 PoI, compared to an Autoshotgun using like 80 shotgun shells but then you find like 60+ while doing it. And the shotgun was far easier, faster, and safer lol
The drone can be used by all attributes and doesn't even interact with anything from the int line, so again it's like the pipe baton where it's neat but ???
My yearly rant about the Int tree needing a solid pass over by a dev who makes it a point to "play an int character" for a full run to see how janky it is aside, update is great lol
