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Development Log / Dev Log #8: Weapons and Trash

« on: March 20, 2024, 05:40:24 pm »

See nicely formatter HTML version on the website.

Hi guys,

We've been busy working on Infusion and we have some stuff to show you.

Firstly, we implemented basic crafting for two melee weapons types - sledgehammers and combat knives.

Currently, for both of these weapons, we only have basic metal variations - steel, tichrome and tungsten. We have the model done for a special "flame sledgehammer", but the mechanics are not there yet.



Sledgehammers are crafted from two components - the head and the handle. The type, material and quality of the head is what has the most influence on the resulting sledgehammer. Handle can affect ergonomics which is a special stat that affects various other stats, but we're going to leave that one for a later dev log.



My idea with sledgehammers is that, outside of energy weapons and explosives, they are probably going to be the most powerful damage-wise, but the trade-off is going to be clunkiness, which makes the weapon impractical in many cases compared to more traditional melee weapons, such as knives, swords and mace-like weapons. Sledgehammers are going to be easier to dodge because of slow swing speed and due to their heaviness they will require you to spend a lot of stamina, especially if you're going to use the powerful overhead slam attack. However, if you are Chad who invests in strength, you'll probably be able to pull some crazy damage numbers, especially with the larger heads.

This brings me to the concept of innate weapon-specific attacks - that is, each weapon will have a number of different attack types, these are available by just having the weapon, without requiring a feat. If they have no cooldown or special condition, which will usually be the case, they can be toggled to be used as an auto-attack when you click an enemy. Well, actually, there is no such thing as an auto-attack anymore, every attack is some specific attack type of your current weapon.



For example, in case of Sledgehammers these would be: swing, overhead slam and pummel. You can imaging how these different attacks work and their different properties. I will not go into it right now, except to say that the pummel takes advantage of a new engine mechanics which allows weapon items to have sub-weapons nested in them. That is, when you attack with the handle of the sledgehammer, it's a completely different weapon with its own stats. This feature is going to come handy when we start implementing all sorts of unique, makeshift and hybrid weapons that can be used in different ways.

* * * * * * * * * *

Next, we implemented the basic combat knife variations. Here, crafting is a bit more interesting because of the number of different handles, guards and pommels.



Knives have two basic attacks: swing and stab. The former being an easier, faster attack, while the latter being a bit slower and more stamina draining but having bonus armor penetration. Depending on the type of knife blade, these attacks can have wildly different effectiveness, especially when it comes to the amount of armor penetration the stab attack will grant.



All these numbers are just my initial estimates of how these blades should work. They will be adjusted through testing and spreadsheet number crunching.

* * * * * * * * * *

We've also implemented assault rifle crafting. We only have a single frame type, but a lot of different attachments. I'm going to showcase it in a separate dev log at a later time, because there's a lot to be said. We've went quite deep when it comes to firearm customization as you might have seen from my past activity on Twitter/X.

* * * * * * * * * *

Lastly, here's a couple of environment screenshots of Infusion's sewers. These are all WIP and not actual areas that are going to be in the game, but they do a good job of demonstrating our visual style. Our lead environment artist MacOrion has been hard at work on producing grime and trash as it's very important to use that the game's visuals properly convey one of the central themes of the setting - which is infrastructural collapse and decay.



* * * * * * * * * *

We continue to work towards our next immediate milestone, which is, as I mentioned before, getting the game into a state where we can produce a short video demonstrating some exploration and combat.

That's it for now. In the next dev log, I'm probably going to be showcasing leather armor, which is in the works right now.

Follow me on Twitter, where I post smaller tidbits occasionally.

Cheers.

2

Development Log / Dev Log #7: New Armor Mechanics

« on: November 17, 2023, 02:11:47 pm »

Hi guys,

It's that time of the year again. All the stars and planets are in the right position and it's time for an Infusion dev log.

We already showed you the extent to which we upgraded the visual aspects of the engine, but the mechanical changes that I've done so far and am yet to do are just as extensive, and perhaps more radical. I'm going to talk about them one by one, in separate dev logs, as I continue to test, tweak, and refine them.

Our immediate goal with the engine and the game is to (re-)implement a number of items and mechanics, get a few areas together, and get the game in a state where it can be played for real, so to speak. Mainly so I can better asses how all these changes work in practice, but also so we can produce a short demo video and show you the game in action for the first time.

* * * * * * * * * *

So, anyway, let's get to the changes to the armor mechanics and damage resistance in general.

In Underrail, the damage resistance was divided into percentual resistance and flat threshold. Incoming damage would be reduced either percentually or by flat amount, whichever would reduce more damage in any given case. This caused a lot of balancing problems. Threshold was generally either useless or overpowered (especially when stacked in early game), while resistance was hard to progress with armor quality, as its percentual nature made it already scale innately.

All these problems really came to forefront when I was implementing different types of shotgun shells in Expedition. Balancing usefulness of different shells in this system was just impossible and it took a lot of tweaking to make it even remotely decent with liberal use of seemingly arbitrary threshold and resistance ignore factors. At one point I was tempted to just implement a completely different interaction for the shells specifically, but decided against it for the sake of consistency.

Another problem with the old model was that all resistances stacked globally. Meaning: resistances from boots and helmets were equally effective as body armor and they all aggregated when it came to interacting with incoming damage. This made me really hesitant to put a lot of resistances on helmets and boots because, on one hand, I didn't want them to make the high resistance armors completely broken by just maxing (or near maxing) out all the resistances and, on the other hand, I didn't want these items, because of their high resistances, becoming mandatory for characters that use ligher armor in the body slot.

There are other problems too, but these are the main issues, I think.

So how does the Infusion's new system differ from the old one?



In Infusion we're going to have a lot more gear slots, mainly from separating body armor and helmets into multiple component slots. This will provide the player with a lot more damage resistance sources. But unlike in the old system, these resistances will not stack. Instead, they will all interact with any given attack separately. So whenever you're struck somewhere on the body, the game will check what armor covers that spot, and it will interact with that armor piece. If there are multiple pieces, it will go through each of them separately, from the outer toward the inner. E.g. you might have some minor resistances on the overcoat that will interact with an incoming bullet or a stab before your torso armor.

For now, I have no intention to allow the player to choose which part of the target's body they're attacking (Fallout style), but there will be different special attacks / stances that will influence this (e.g. decapitate). Also, elevation and size of attacker and the target will also play a role here. So, for example, attacking someone from an elevated position will give you a better chance to hit them in the head and worse (if any) chance to hit their feet.

Different types of creatures will have different body part arrangements. For humans it is as follows: Head (5%), Torso (55%), Arms (10%), Legs (including the pelvis) (25%), Feet (5%). The number in brackets is the current working chance to hit distribution for a generic ranged attack. These numbers will vary for different attacks and situations, but it should give you some general idea what areas are going to be most important to cover with armor in most situations.


(enlarge image 1) (enlarge image 2) (enlarge image 3)

Depending on the armor design itself, it may end up covering one or more body parts. In the example of an armored rig/vest, which is the only crafted armor at the moment that's implemented, in addition to covering the torso, it can also provide some additional protection to arms and legs.


(enlarge image 1) (enlarge image 2) (enlarge image 3)

Let's go through the examples above. The armor on the left only provides cover to 80% of the torso part. Like the icon indicates, it does not cover the stomach all the way down. We'll talk about the intricacies of coverage later.

The armor in the middle, however, also sports sleeves and a groin guard. The groin guard covers the rest of the belly in the torso part and also covers the groin area, of course, which falls under the legs part. The sleeves cover the shoulders area of the arms part.

The armor on the right has sleeves, but no groin guard.

Regarding coverage, the way we're going to determine at which point an attack lands in a given body part, and so if it interacts with an armor segment that provides partial coverage, is still under consideration. The tooltip here provides just the coverage percentage, but the icon itself is trying to further illustrate what area of the part is covered. Having 20% coverage in arms at the top (shoulders) is not the same as at the bottom (hands) as both of these can be layered over. It doesn't make much sense that, if you are wearing gloves and shoulder pads, a bullet attack can go through both of these.

The way I treat the coverage number, which is esentially a floating point pair (e.g. 0.8-1.0 for shoulders, 0.0-0.2 for hands), is that 0 is the lowest point of the body part and 1 is the top point of the body part and 0.5 is the middle.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now, if you are an RPG mechanics connoisseur, as you surely must be if you made it this far into the dev log, you might be looking at that armor at the left and thinking how fun it's going to be to get hit by stray bullet to the torso right below your endgame crafting-maxxed armored vest and instakilled 20 hours into your ironman DOMINATING run. And I share your enthusiasm for suffering. However, as this kind of experience might not be pleasurable for most players, there are some additional considerations that I'm going to have to give to this.

One of the mechanics that are in place right now is that there is such a thing as grazing shots, which are basically hits that deal about half as much damage. They occur when the attack roll is within the graze part of the hit chance, the size of which is determined by attack-to-defense ratio. I don't want to get into too much details regarding this right now, as the topic is extensive and this dev log is already too long (it warrants its own). What is relevant for the example above is that the farther you are into the graze area of the roll, the farther the hit lands from the center of the body part.

So, basically, the lethal bullet hit described above would deal half the damage, giving you a better chance to survive. Whether this will be enough to make these situations acceptable, remains to be seen through testing. Just know that I am aware of this potential problem with the system.

So what about other body parts? Are we going to have to cover every bit of our body with heavy armor to avoid the similar scenario? What about getting hit with a plasma gun critical to the pinky toe while wearing tabis? Well, first of all, the chance to get hit in the feet is quite low, outside insects biting you or stepping on caltrops or acid.

Additionally, each body part has its innate damage taken modifier and they are currently set to these values: head - 150%, torso - 100%, arms - 40%, legs - 60%, feet - 25%. So the armor value of your footwear is not nearly as important as your body armor, while if you don't wear a helmet to a gun fight, you're taking quite a risk.

All these numbers are subject to change, of course.

* * * * * * * * * *

The last point I want to cover are the armor values themselves. As you might have noticed, the old format of percentage resistance / flat threshold is gone. What we have now is resistance / soak / material type.

Firstly, ignore these particular numbers, they are just random placeholders. I haven't gotten to writing real component specs yet. That said, let's go through all these values.

Resistance is the first line of defense, so to speak. It is checked against the incoming damage in order to determine what percentage of it will go through the armor. The formula goes something like this (there's also armor penetration, armor bypass and other mods, but for simplicity's sake, we're going to ignore those for now):

damage_done = incoming_damage * (incoming_damage / (incoming_damage + resistance))²

So if the resistance and damage values are the same, the incoming damage is multiplied by 0.25. That is, quarter of it goes through. If the incoming damage is twice the resistance, it's multiplied by 0.43, and for the other way around it's 0.1.

This formula is subject to change, of course, pending testing. But the general idea is that the ratio between damage and resistance is what determines the percentage reduction instead of it being fixed on the item. This makes the resistance much easier to scale/progress.

After the formula above is applied, soak value is deducted:

final_damage_done = damage_done - soak

So, unlike threshold, soak will now be an important stat throughout the playthrough as it is always applied at the very end, reducing already percentually reduced value.

The final property of damage resistance is the material type. I haven't started implementing this yet, but the idea is that this will modify the inputs to the formulas above, and maybe even formula itself, depending on the type of the attack and the type of material. For example, kevlar is going to be really good against bullet attacks, but not that good against other attacks.

* * * * * * * * * *

That's it for now. There are a lot more mechanical changes that are either implemented or are being implemented, so expect more dev logs in the near future. But then again, I always say that and then skip nearly a whole year without posting.

Also, follow me on Twitter, where I post smaller tidbits occasionally.

Cheers.

3

Development Log / Dev Log #73: Version 1.2.0.0 and the incoming DLC

« on: October 12, 2023, 02:20:26 pm »

Hi guys,

In preparation of the coming release of Heavy Duty DLC (which you can wishlist now on Steam or GOG) we are pushing version 1.2.0.0 out on the main branch today. You can find the list of changes down below.

In one of the dev logs back in 2022, I hinted at a possiblity of us releasing a small DLC that would contain some important mechanics that we originally planned for a bigger DLC that would follow after Expedition. These mechanics were the new weapon types. As I said then, instead of making this large DLC we decided to move on to Infusion and basically rework the entire engine.

However, we didn't want to just leave those out permanently. While I was busy working on the new engine, along with the 3D artists, I decide to have the level/quest designers, who could not do any substantial work in the new engine yet anyway, work on a short, but unique, side-mission that we could then package with the weapons as a smaller DLC.

That way we could freshen up the game without disrupting the work on Infusion significantly. Granted, it did take some of my development time to code the new weapons (because at that point we only had the spritesheet renders) as well as some of the artists' time when creating the new tilesets. However, the majority of the work was done by the two level designers that had time to spare anyway.

So I hope you all enjoy the new weapons, I found them very fun during testing, as well as the new adventure. I can now confidently say that this is probably maybe the last big content update to the game until we're finished with Infusion. Of course, there's still the question of improved Steam Deck support and localization tools. Also it wouldn't hurt to add a couple more unique weapons, spears in particular...

Anyway, here is the list of changes in this patch. It does not include the DLC stuff that's coming later.

Features

• New seasonal events

Items

• Increased the cost of Hexogen
• Scopes, crossbow superstring, pneumatic reloader and laser sight are now stackable
• Praetorian heavy armor acid resistance changed to 0% / 5 (down from 20% / 10). This was a mistake, regular metal armors have minimal fixed acid resistance
• Praetorian heavy armor health bonused changed to 35 (up from 20)
• Reduced the mechanics required for a number of different gun barrels (7.62, 8.6, .44, 12.7)
• Increased durability of TT 3000 from 690 to 2220, and Balor's Hammer from 1770 to 3570

NPCs

• Rathound King and What now have custom combat taunts
• Doctor Merrick will now treat injured players
• Gorsky is now immune to fear
• [Expedition] Becket will now sell spears and offer them as a reward; also, he will now always buy some medical items per restock (was random before)
  

Tweaks:

• Reduced the spread angle for assault rifle/SMG bursts
• Echoing Soliloquy persuasion buff will now work a lot more reliably on higher difficulties
• Tchortlings will now despawn (go back to their wretched holes) if the player returns to Hollow Earth zones without being affected by the Eye of Tchort debuff
• Protectorate Dreadnought's minigun now behaves like a proper minigun; also, the shoot rocket ability's AP cost has been reduced from 30 to 20, whereas cooldown has been increased from 2 to 3 turns

Bugs

• Item macro stacking (1000 = 1k, 1000000 = 1m...) will now properly work with the new UI settings (was Classic-only)
• Fatal Throw should no longer provide any benefit when throwing acid vials
• Fixed the UI bug with certain vehicle slot background icons in some UI sizes
• Updated HARP rocket explosion to use the same sprites as High Explosive grenades, instead of the old one
• Commando will no longer trigger when destroying inanimate objects
• Certain special acid attack will now count towards "Acid Trip" achievement
• Fixed being able to tell Lt. Garren that a certain sneaky person is located somewhere despite the fact that he isn't
• Fixed Leo sometimes not leaving his hiding place properly and thus not being accessible for the rest of the playthrough
• Fixed Epione Lab cameras sometimes tracking the player despite them having been allowed access by the front guard
• Fixed Gorsky staying in Tanner's office even after certain events that should prevent their conversation from happening have taken place
• Fixed being able to pickpocket femurs from hunchback mutants
• Fixed certain Mushroom Root parts being selectable from outside of the actual sprite
• Fixed thrown oil barrels doing acid damage on direct impact
• Fixed being able to daze machines while under the influence of Scrapperac
• Fixed the game not acknowledging you had paid for the Wormhole access if you did so through a mercantile check
• Fixed Tchortling Sower Tentacles sometimes dropping their bio attack weapon items for the players to pick up
• Fixed SRO assault squad not returning to home base upon victory
• If the player manages to survive the electric shock and subsequently kill the other runners in the Gauntlet's final area, they will no longer be able to enter other lanes and go out of bounds
• Buying drapes for your house will now properly remove 300 charons from inventory (as stated in Jyles' dialog) instead of 350
• Death of reclined characters lke the wounded sec-trooper will no longer be displayed as destruction in the text feed
• [Expedition] Fixed not being able to disembark at a destroyed wall section in Port Ceto during certain events
  
• [Expedition] Updated Elemental Bolts feat description to include energy bolts. The text remains the same for the base game, as it does not feature this kind of bolts
  
• [Expedition] Fixed the camp defense quest note not being marked as completed in certain situations
  
• [Expedition] Fixed not always getting extra xp for doing the final pirate mission solo (and some other minor dialog inconsistencies)
  
• [Expedition] Fixed Ladelman not selling vehicle repair kits
  
• [Expedition] Fixed quests related to joining the expedition not always being marked as failed when the ship returns to the Black Sea without the player
  
• [Expedition] Fixed a broken electronics check when attempting to fix an Abandoned Waterways Facility console
  
• [Expedition] Fixed not getting a bonus for revealing a certain threat to the expedition
  
• [Expedition] Fixed behavioural issues with Ladelman and Doc Savage when they join the camp defenses at the beach
  
• [Expedition] Fixed a broken option to call for reinforcements during kidnapping negotiations
  
• [Expedition] Fixed the respawning jet ski in Abandoned Waterway Facility
  
• [Expedition] Fixed The Rig guard dogs engaging players riding jets skis (will occasionally growl at them only)
  
• [Expedition] Fixed junk jets taken from members of a few factions still displaying red/protected cursor
  
• [Expedition] Room 3 at The Rig will no longer display red/protected cursor even if Murky gave you its key
  
• [Expedition] A certain persuasion option will no longer break Todd's dialog
  
• minor dialog/zone fixes

That's it for now, guys. Look out for the DLC coming November 1st!

Cheers.

4

Announcements / Underrail: Heavy Duty DLC

« on: September 29, 2023, 04:39:37 pm »

Hi guys,

It is our pleasure to announce a second DLC called "Underrail: Heavy Duty."

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpaFg6mnlak

This DLC focuses primarily on three new weapon types - light machine gun and minigun, both of which fall under a new skill called Heavy Guns, and grenade launcher which is a part of the existing Guns skill. These weapons will add a number of new interesting play styles.

In addition to this, the DLC will feature a high-level side-mission that is designed to provide a challenge to Underrail veterans. You'll be pitted against one of the most formidable fighting force in Underrail. On higher difficulties, especially, this mission will serve as an ultimate test of your particular build.

That's it. The DLC is out November 1st, but you can wishlist it now on Steam or GOG.

Cheers.

5

Development Log / Dev Log #6: New Environment Renderer

« on: December 06, 2022, 09:38:08 pm »

Hi guys,

We're finally ready to give you a sneak peak in the new and improved Infusion environment visuals. We've done extensive work on the 2D rendering engine, and while there are still things to improve, we're quite pleased how it looks now. Keep in mind, though, that all the scenes you'll see below were made for demo purposes only and do not reflect how the actual game levels will look.


(enlarge image 1) (enlarge image 2)

First thing we did is increasing the asset resolution significantly. We increased the size of the base tile from 96x48 to 160x80, which resulted in the asset size change you can see below.



Next, for all our prerendered graphics we're also exporting normal and height maps, which allows us to have smoother lighting, but, more importantly, it enables objects to clip through each other. This solves so many problems with sprite ordering and also allows us to easily combine items into interesting environmental compositions.


(enlarge image)

Another important thing that we introduced is actual tile height and sloping, so we no longer have to simulate it with assets that are otherwise logically flat - which used to result in weird discovery and lighting artifacts. This will allow us create more interesting maps, as well as have gameplay mechanics that relate to height (such as falling down, climbing, in-area elevators, etc). We're also going to have to adjust many existing mechanics to take elevation into account, but that's a story for another dev log.


(enlarge image 1) (enlarge image 2)

We've also improved how shroud and fog of war works. It's now much smoother and will no longer leave weird gaps in the map while it's partially discovered as often happens in the old game.

There's still much work to be done with the rendering engine - fluids, decals, creature shadows, post-processing effects, and also many minor tweaks, so stay tuned for more updates. Once we get a bit more assets done, we're going to make a video to show you how the engine looks in motion. In the meantime, let us know how you like the new visuals.

Cheers.

6

Development Log / Dev Log #5: Character Model Customization

« on: August 03, 2022, 11:34:30 am »

Hi guys,

In this dev log, I'm going to give you a little sneak peek of what character customization will be possible in the new engine. Today, I'll only be showing and discussing male characters, but you can expect analogous customization for females as well.

As I mentioned in the previous dev log, we're now using PBR (physics based rendering) for characters. Might not be that apparent in the screenshot below, as all the characters are naked, but it'll definitely make a lot of difference once we start equipping them with gear made of different materials..



Of course, first and foremost, you'll finally be able to pick a skin color. Then you'll be able to select your hair style, beard and mustache styles and colors. Both skin and hair colors will be chosen from a predetermined list, so no orc, alien, or other unnatural silly characters will be allowed.

You'll also be able to choose a face from a predetermined list, though this will probably have the least visual impact due to the size at which models are rendered.

Characters also support having piercings, tattoos, scars and the like, but we'll see how we're going to make these accessible to player. For the most part, you'll probably not be able to choose these at characters creation, but will instead have to earn them along the way.

The most important feature, for me at least, is the body type variety. This you will not be able to pick freely, but instead, your visual body type will correspond to your physical attributes: strength, agility, and constitution. Strength will make you bigger, while agility will make you leaner. Constitution has a more complex interaction with your visual appearance as it is both a measure of physical sturdiness and endurance.

These things will also, generally, apply to the NPCs, so you'll be able to gauge their physical properties from their appearance.

That's it for now. I know a lot of you are very interested to see some environment screenshots, so hopefully we can get those out relatively soon as well. I think you'll be quite impressed with the upgrade from the previous game.

Cheers.

7

General / MOVED: Infusion unarmed combat

« on: July 23, 2022, 09:18:50 am »

This topic has been moved to General.

https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=8700.0

8

Development Log / Dev Log #4: Laying the Foundations

« on: May 31, 2022, 02:13:45 pm »

Hi guys,

As we promised with the last Underrail dev log, since February we've been focused exclusively on the Infusion project. Here's a little update on how that's going.

We're still ways off from having anything resembling an actual game, as I'm still working intently on the engine and the tools. Much of the old engine is either being changed or scrapped and replaced and it's going to take some time before we can get the new stuff operational.

I'm going to give you now a quick overview of some of the engine work done, and then perhaps we'll get into more detail about these various systems at a later point. A quick note for those of you who have grown accustomed to our standard Underrail (1) dev logs which are usually centered around some upcoming update or a specific set of features: these in turn will be a bit more free-form and will cover whatever we're focusing on currently. They are there not to get you hyped or present you with a polished product preview, but rather to just give you some insight into the game's development and assure you're it's actually taking place.



Firstly, I redid the entire dialog engine and editor and we're now sporting a neat flowchart editor instead of the old tree-based one. I've also added some new technical features that are going to allow us to more easily write more robust dialogs.</p>



Secondly, I've decided to redo the AI from scratch. This time, I'm implementing it as a full-fledge state machine that I'll actually be able to debug properly. We want to add all kinds of proactive and reactive behaviors (inside and outside combat) to our NPCs and to do that we need a robust system such as this. I'm going to go into more details about this in some future dev log.

Next, for the purpose of the first two features, I implemented a simple scripting language that we can use to quickly embed code within our systems without having to write C# functions in Visual Studio. This should make the development much more agile in some areas.

Finally, there are some visual features that have had to be revamped, such as the 3D model renderer. We're now using physics based rendering. I've post any new character renders right now, though I will leave you with that beauty at the end.

I don't have any new fancy environments to show you either, and actually we have regressed with the amount of environmental assets that we have, as we increased the sprite resolution in the meantime and need to re-render the old stuff. This was a necessary step in future-proofing the game, so by the time it comes out, it won't be completely outscaled by monitor resolutions like with our first game.

I'll quickly mention that projectile and particle systems are operational, but are currently lacking (any) content.

That's it for now. I haven't given you much content to comment on, but let us know your thoughts anyway. I've created new General section for discussing Underrail: Infusion on the forums, so feel free yo post any thoughts and the like there, as well.

Cheers.

9

General / Screenshots needed!

« on: February 25, 2022, 09:57:59 pm »

With all the changes that were made over the years, and especially now with the updated UI, the Underrail screenshots on various stores have become badly outdated.

We were going to make new ones ourselves, but I thought you guys might want to chip in with your own. If you are interested here are the guidelines:

- Screenshots should be 1920x1080 in size
- We are primarily looking for screenshots that show the UI, so avoid hiding it, though occasional atmospheric shot is welcome too
- If UI is visible, it should be the new one, Large size preferred, but Small is ok as well
- No silly portraits, no copyrighted portraits (other the ones from the game, ofc). If you're using a custom portraits and you suspects its copyrighted, just swap it to a normal portrait when taking the screenshot
- If your character has ridiculous name, hide the combat log
- Make sure the situation in the screenshot if fairly readable - a screen with 10+ characters standing on the same amount of corpses with TAB pressed is not ideal
- Avoid heavy spoilers - no posting the big T, the tree seed thing, etc.

That said, you can post whatever situation you find interesting, be it combat, exploration, dialog, crafting, inventory management, etc.

Do not listen to the unfounded rumors that this is some kind of a ploy to round up all the OP builds. This is strictly for marketing purposes.

Thanks for your help.

10

Development Log / Dev Log #72: Steam Deck Preparations

« on: February 21, 2022, 11:12:53 pm »

Hi guys,

Today we're pushing the 1.1.5.6 version to the main branch. If you missed the original release on experimental, you can check out the previous dev log, as well as subsequent patch notes, to see what's it all about.

Next week we're going to release an update that will be focused around making the game functional on Steam Deck and Proton in general. The game might still not be as comfortable to play on Steam Deck as we are not going to implement a specialized UI or gamepad controls right now. That's a bigger undertaking that will have to wait until I've cleared some of my Infusion development schedule.



But, while it might not be the best hand-held experience, the game should still be completely functional on Steam Deck. I've fixed the outstanding issues with Proton in regards to the slowdown (which should now make the game fully playable on Linux) and have implemented an on-screen keyboard to be used in few places where textual input is required.

Another big change that will be coming with the next update is support for Steam Cloud, which should be able to function with the game now as it's quite a bit more generous in regards of storage space than back when we originally considered it. That said, if you're like me and make a lot of separate save files, you might want to trim your Save folder if you intend to use this feature.

That's it for now, guys.

Cheers.

11

Development Log / Dev Log #71: New Year's Resolution

« on: January 31, 2022, 11:18:30 am »

Hi guys,

Today we're releasing our last major free content update for Underrail. It's been just a bit over six years since the full release of the base game, and I think that's a nice and round number to rest at. After this we're going to transition to working at about 95% of our collective capacity on our next project known under codename Infusion. You can see what's this project about and follow its development here: stygiansoftware.com/infusion. We should start posting dev logs there more regularly soon.

However, this does not mean that we're completely done with this game. We intend to support it as long as we exist as a company and also periodically release small content updates which will mostly feature mechanical tweaks, as well new items and abilities. We have quite a robust system for creating interesting items at this point, which we intend to use to further extend Underrail's playstyle catalogue so to speak.

Also we have some bigger features planned for the future, such as better adapting the game's UI and controls to Steam Deck, creating tools for community translation projects, potentially porting the game to other platforms, and more.

Another distinct possibility is an additon of a small paid DLC for Underrail, as there are some substantial gameplay mechanics that we initially planned to add in the second DLC (following Expedition), but were left in a state of limbo after we decided to move onto Infusion instead.

Exactly when any of these things will come about, I do not know. They will mostly require me to spend my programming time on them, which I will not have much to spare as Infusion is going to occupy most of it in the coming years. So don't expect rapid progress in any of the things mentioned above.

Before I hit you with all the bullet points, here's an important notice: due to the nature and quantity of changes made, the update will first be deployed onto the Experimental branch.

To play experimental branch on Steam, you right click the game in your library and go to "Betas" tab. To do so on GOG Galaxy, you go to Manage Installation -> Configure. Make sure you don't override all your live version saves just in case something goes horribly wrong.

Now, without further ado, here's the list of changes and additions that come with this update, minus the secret stuff, of course:

MAJOR STUFF

• Implemented, new slightly visually touched up, UI that is available in 3 sizes; classic UI still available
• The game will now automatically be zoomed on higher resolutions (which can then be changed through manual zooming if it's enabled)
• Introduced a brand new Core City questline as an alternative to joining an oligarch
• Improved nearly all unique and some rare weapons and armor - go check them out
• You can refurbish your old world firearms at one of the firearm enthusiasts
• Characters can now save up to 10 action points at the end of their turn and add those to their next turn
• Base ability values are no longer capped at 20, but instead the maximum bonus on top of the base value that you can accumulate is 10

UI

• Implemented borderless windowed display mode   
• Item's special abilities/attacks will now have icon in the item's tooltip next to the description
• Fixed character's speech bubble and health bar offsets when zoomed in
• Zooming step changed to 25% (down from 50%)
• Added an option to follow the player character (default hotkey: F3). This is kind of an experimental feature, so be sure to let me know if you discover any bugs

Feats

• Opportunist - description now specifies it only works against living targets
• Pummel - will now list the action point cost
• Fend - Base action point cost changed to 60% of normal attack ap cost (down from 100%)

Specializations

• Fend: Action Point Cost - Ap cost reduction per point changed to 8% (down from 10%)

Items

• Item effects (such as poisons and gun oil) will now display a small icon in the corner of the parent item
• You can now use poisons to coat suitable melee weapons if you have the required Biology skill level; the poisoned weapons will then apply that poison in a certain number of attacks; you can coat a weapon with only one poison at a time
• Added Sharpening Stone - Can sharpen a bladed melee weapon, increasing its damage by 10% for the next 30 strikes, but permanently reducing its max durability by 5%
• Added Firecracker Cap item enhancement that can be applied to sledgehammers and crowbars to cause an explosion on the next hit
• All-in now decreases intelligence by 3 instead of increasing it
• Commando Belt moved to static loot
• [Expedition] Frogfish biology requirement changed to 50 (up from 25)
  
• [Expedition] Add a new unique spear and sword that can be found before going to Black Sea
  

Ammo

• W2C bullets now ignore 35%-45% of mechanical damage resistance depending on bullet caliber (down from fixed 65%), threshold interaction remains he same
• 5mm Shock Round - Damage changed to 8-15 (up from 5-10) and now has 3% chance to daze target for 1 turn
• 7.62mm Micro-shrapnel Round - The damage that penetrates the armor is increased by 25% against organic targets
• 8.6mm Incendiary Round - Now also deals 10-20 heat damage on impact
• 9mm Acid Round - Acid damage changed to 15-30 (up from 10-20)
• .44 Explosive Round - Heat and mechanical explosion damage changed to 23-45 (up from 15-30)

Crafting

• Steel and tungsten plates requirement is now capped at 30 mechanics when crafting bullets
• W2C Bullets blueprint now requires hexogen instead of raw tnt and produces 20 bullets (down from 30)
• JHP Bullets blueprint now produces 20 bullets (down from 30)
• Changed enriched health hypo critical chance to 10% (up from 5%)
• Large intestine biology requirement changed to 45 (down from 50)
• Taurine biology requirement changed to 45 (down from 50)
• Anglerfish biology requirement changed to 90 (down from 100)
• Fusing Enzyme biology requirement changed to 90 (down from 100)

Quests/Zones/NPCs

• Increased t-boss health on dominating difficulty, and his damage resistance on all difficulties
• Expanded upon Motion and Motioners; this drug is now both better and worse
• You can now bring Gorsky high-quality energy shields from other sources as an alternative to raiding Port Zenith
• Added an agility check that allows you to climb up and down between the Caerus Residential Block square and SW building second floor
• Added fireplaces to certain locations in Deep Caverns
• Added a hacking check to Cytosine Outpost storeroom
• Added more hydraulic fluid canisters to Deep Caverns
• Certain gate components can now be found at multiple locations in Deep Caverns
• You can now use electronics skill to optimize Arke power plant turbine output for more total power
• A certain important encounter with the Faceless will now feature some of them having their infusions active from the start (only on Dominating difficulty)
• Added an extra Thought Control check to the DC mindreading that allows the player to conceal his mischievous behavior
• You can now bring super steel refining data to Bernard in order to improve the quality of super steel plates; also raised the max quality from 160 to 180 for players who have Expedition installed
• Leonie will now offer the Infused Leather blueprint as soon as you show her you have super steel plates (currently you have to do the melting process with Bernard first)
• You can turn metal scraps into low-quality steel plates at Leonie's
• Added more ways to learn about a certain Foundry arms merchant
• Added more entries to the super secret organization database, and placed some of the existing ones behind higher access levels
• Added more options to save Maura
• You can now borrow (or "borrow") AK from Kokoschka
• Becket now also offers psi inhalants alongside psi boosters when giving you your equipment package
• Added Underrail Express tickets which can be pickpocketed from NPCs and used for a single ride
• New models and portraits for Jon the Beautiful, Sergio the Wizard, and some super secret folks
• New random events, some of them seasonal, and some related to the player's house
• Introduced Jookhela's drawing skills to the world
• Increased requirements for achieving Brutalizer/Brutalette gladiator nicknames, so they shouldn't be so predominant now
• The Black Crawler now drops an oddity item when killed
• New entries in the Institute of Tchort library, some of which contain blueprints and will require a special card
• New skill checks for Octavia, Vuk and Kiro that will unlock certain items for trading
• [Expedition] Naval mines will now be heard detonating in the distance when someone attacks the camp
  
• [Expedition] Added ways to break yourself free from a certain man's mechanical grasp
  
• [Expedition] Added certain dialog options to Doc Savage and Marcus that were only available through navcom
  

Tweaks

• Optimized faction data relations serialization which should improve save/load times of mid and late game savegames somewhat
• Fixed the pathfinding prioritization to prevent player from getting stuck in place when a lot of NPC pathfinding is taking place
• Being in turn-based mode will now count as being in combat for purpose of changing equipment

Bugs

• Game will no longer accept mouse clicks in windowed mode when the game window is not focused
• Fixed the bug that would cause the carried weight to not immediately update when consuming/expending items in a stack
• Pseudo-spatial Projection will now properly affect Spear Throw
• Fixed the bug that allowed some items to make the player's mechanical resistance sometimes exceed the normal limit
• Fixed the bug that cause the item tooltip to not correctly indicate which effects are unavailable due to unmet requirements when the item is not currently equipped
• Fixed the bug that would cause Bone Breaker to trigger irrespectively of the amount of damage dealt
• Negative effects of equipped items will now still properly apply even if you do not meet the item requirements
• Fixed the bug that would cause assault rifle burst attack and pistol rapid fire to calculate each burst hit with the wrong bullet from the magazine (it was offset by 1)
• Fixed the bug that would cause the Needler's Piercing Shot to hit the pass-through targets twice
• NPCs will now properly use crossbow to fire special bolts instead of switching weapons when they are out of regular bolts
• You can no longer trigger Escape Bonds when you're completely encumbered
• Plasma Beam will now properly hit all targets in the target tile (the ones highlighted when targeting)
• Fixed the bug that caused psi beetles to try to neural overload force fields
• Fixed some esoteric explosion bugs
• You can no longer climb a certain ladder before releasing the very, very bad gas in an under-passages hideout (unless you kill the person supervising you)
• Captain Rastko will no longer charge double for a single ride
• Fixed the Green Galaxy furniture set not appearing when switching between it and other bought sets
• Fixed not being able to report Newton's death if he was killed in certain ways
• Attacking Jack Quicksilver will now properly register who attacked him and will not instead be attributed to the player for certain quest purposes
• Killing Vivian at a certain location will now fail the quest and prevent the player from doing certain things which might get them permanently stuck   
• [Expedition] Spear guard triggered from spear attacks will now properly replace a more powerful existing spear guard effect if the latter is about to expire
  
• [Expedition] Spear throw will now destealth the thrower after the throw instead before
  
• [Expedition] Fixed Improved Naval Combat checking for effective instead of base Agility value in Razor's dialog
  
• [Expedition] Fixed a bug which in certain cases prevents players from sleeping in the camp bed more than once
  
• [Expedition] Fixed Aran not despawning when he should in certain cases
  
• [Expedition] Fixed Ferryman being stuck in the "I'm moving out." phase and not wanting to talk to the player
  
• [Expedition] Fixed Dude sometimes not having certain dialogue options when waiting for the player to find something important in his cave home
  
• [Expedition] Fixed Briggs getting stuck at the "Shouldn't you be looking for a microchip implant?" line in certain very specific instances
  
• [Expedition] Fixed Professor Oldfield not following you when he should
  
• [Expedition] Fixed receiving certain NavCom messages if you stole/looted it but never joined the expedition
  
• [Expedition] Fixed being able to sail across certain cliffs in the Mutie Refuge zone
  
• [Expedition] Fixed wrong closing sounds for one type of Lemurian boxes
  
• [Expedition] Fixed infinite Black Eel jet skiers bug
  

Let us know how you like the additions and changes.

12

General / Out of office until 17.01.2022.

« on: January 01, 2022, 11:24:45 am »

We'll be collectively on vacation until 17.01.2022.

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas everyone.

13

Bugs / MOVED: UI too small

« on: September 02, 2021, 11:15:15 am »

This topic has been moved to Suggestions.

https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=7892.0

14

Bugs / MOVED: babushka know nothing about charms

« on: September 02, 2021, 11:14:35 am »

This topic has been moved to Suggestions.

https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=7897.0

15

Development Log / Dev Log #70: Method and Madness

« on: June 30, 2021, 11:49:27 am »

Hi guys,

We're rolling out a new content update. The main features of this update are new psi abilities for the three psionic schools of the base game, new items, and an alternative entrance into the Institute of Tchort, which becomes available at the appropriate time.

We also added an interesting new dungeon that can be accessed from somewhere in the Upper Underrail, so you might want to revisit those areas again.

I won't spoil the psi abilities; you'll have to find them out yourself. We haven't added any new temporal manipulation psi abilities, but we're likely to do that in a later update. The problem with TM is that it's designed to be limited in its offensive capabilities, in a sense that it's meant to deal its damage through a single delayed effect. And on the other hand, it's already overloaded with utility. This makes it quite hard to come up with something that would fit well into the school without making it even more unreasonably useful. We have some ideas, but they will need more developing.

Anyway, here is the full list of changes, except the secret ones, of course:

General

• A completely new way to gain access to the Institute of Tchort
• Reward items for joining Preservation or Investigation in the Institute of Tchort
• New dungeons and random fragments
• Added another way to reach the caves beneath the Mushroom Forest; also dropped some goodies inside the forest
• Certain NPCs can now consume food and drink items outside combat

Items

• Tchortist Rassophore Armor resistance bonus vs bullets/shells changed to 100% (up from 75%).
• Tchortist Rassophore Armor will now also reduce chance for wearer to be crit by psi by 3%.
• Tchortist Rassophore Armor is no longer marked as unique (purple)
• You can now add spikes or serrated blades to sledgehammer instead of electroshock module
• Added a set of new luxury items to the world; some of these are unique
• Blast Suit: agility penalty reduced from -6 to -3, dexterity penalty is completely removed, but there is now a perception penalty of -2 instead. Also, the armor's weight is reduced from 40 to 25
• Phase Gun: reduced AP from 40 to 35 and increased energy shield dissipation from 100 to 300; it's also been moved from DC to the Lost Vault
• Mind Cracker: lowered AP cost from 25 to 22, increased psi burn from 25 to 50 points, chance to apply psi inhibition from 25% to 30%, and replaced the resolve penalty with massive penalties to psi skills, regeneration and max points; also moved it to a mysterious new area
• Quake: lowered AP cost from 25 to 23
• Jawbone: Reduced minimal strength from 6 to 5 and increased damage from 25/60 to 30/70; meeting the 7 strength requirement reduces AP cost per shot by 3 (from 25 to 22) and boosts initimidation by 15
• [Expedition] Industrial Powered Exoskeleton: activating it now gives 3 extra strength instead of 2, 40 MP instead of 25 (to offset the high armor penalty), and the agility penalty is removed. The drill attack AP is also reduced from 40 to 35
  
• [Expedition] Makeshift Chrono-repeater: Skill malus no longer affects Temporal Manipulation itself
  
• [Expedition] Changed the duration of Hypercerebrix to 8 turns (up from 5)
  
• [Expedition] Added spear component that increases thrown damage and range
  

UI

• You can no longer see the silhouette of unobtained oddities in their window
• You can no longer craft in turn-based mode
• When invoking an ability that targets a tile, it will now always ignore characters and such; it used to work like that, but I broke it at some point

Tweaks

• Siphoner attacks now bypasses 30% of mechanical threshold instead of being threated as a "knife" attack
• Siphoner initial siphining hook attack deals 50% more damage, but siphonig is not performed if the target resists all mechanical damage (instead of it only being canceled if the attack misses)
• Killing the Mushroom Forest boss will now also kill the spore turrets above it
• Halved the number of spore stacks necessary to dream...
• Echoing Soliloquy now gets a buff from persuasion (applied at the moment you obtain the feat and remains constant afterwards)
• Improved the layout of the Gubbins' gang area in Upper Underrail
• Added a new way to help the rejects (if Nevil survived), and did some general improvements and tweaks
• Overhauled elevator access areas and increased the loot quantity and quality inside the residential office building. In addition, increased the hacking requirement to get inside the building.
• Added new loot to the lower passages early game fragment dungeon.
• Toned down item quality sold by Booth.
• [Expedition] Added another shortcut to Nexus of Technology for those who have visited Crimson Meadow beforehand
  
• [Expedition] Added a unique luxury item to Matriuss Ludenloff.
  

Bugs

• Throwing knives will no longer play sound effects when hitting pseudo-spatial projections
• Fixed the bug that would cause the game to no longer receive keyboard inputs after clicking on some areas of Oddities window
• Commando specialization will now always properly award extra AP and is no longer limited by the normal maximum for the turn   
• Fixed certain factions resetting from hostile to neutral after the player comes in contact with a very, very bad gas and then reloads the game
• Fixed Gorsky receiving an endless supply of assault rifles
• Fixed certain npcs briefly turning invisible when playing custom idle animations
• [Expedition] Fixed a rare crash when going to the island where the game can be finished in a special way
  
• Various minor dialog and zone fixes

We are due for just one more content update before we shift fully to the Infusion project. From that point onwards there will be minor addition to the game, at least until the Infusion is released. But more on that in the next dev log.

Let us know how you like the additions and changes.

Cheers.