Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - Styg

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 10
16
Development Log / Dev Log #69: Crossing the Styx
« on: February 26, 2021, 11:49:19 am »


Hi guys,

We're rolling out a new content update. It's going to be a somewhat weird update because the main bulk of the content is centered around something that is not part of a mainstream playthrough. We added an interesting adventure and resolution to players who get... genetically compromised during their time in Underrail. Where and how is for you guys to find out (it does require the Expedition DLC though).

Also we've added more than a dozen new areas to the game, some of which will appear randomly in different playthroughs.

Mechanics-wise I've taken a look at firearm pistols, throwing, and super steel weapons and made some improvements and/or tweaks there.

Anyway, here's the full list of changes, minus the secret stuff:

Items
  • You can now throw acid vials
  • Obscure weapon improved in an obscure way [Lemurian Spear works with High-Technicalities]
  • Infused Bison leather will now provide more fortitude when crafting boots (not applied retroactively)
  • Vigorous Belt now also grants 15 fortitude
  • AI Scrambler and Hypno Goggle value will now scale with their effective level
UI
  • Added a toggle on the right side of the action bar that, when turned on, will prevent you from interacting with all containers and other usables while in turn-based mode; The main purpose of this feature is to prevent you from misclicking enemy remains, but it will also help with the doors
  • In character sheet window, modified skill values that are currently affected by syngergies will be highlighted in yellow
Specializations
  • Reduced the max spec points that can be invested in Wrestling spec to 5, since more would just take you over 100% chance to apply. If you invested more than that: lol noob! (j/k You'll get those back on the next level up (unless you're max level in which case: lol noob!))
Metal Weapon Changes
  • Tungsten sledgehammer critical chance reduced by 1%
  • Supersteel sledgehammer critical chance increased by 2%
  • Supersteel sledgehammer action point cost reduced by 2
  • Supersteel spear will now grant 3% precision bonus
  • Supersteel machete will now grant 3% precision bonus
  • Supersteel machete action point cost reduced by 1
  • Supersteel combat knife will now grant 5% precision bonus
Pistol changes
  • Increased critical hit chance of all firearm pistols by 3% (new base is 10% now)
  • Firearm pistols damage increased by about 25%
  • Firearm pistols now ignore up to 40% of target's evasion at close range
  • Sharpshooter now grants the critical damage bonus to firearm pistols at all times regardless of focus
  • Added Gun-Fu feat - When attacking with firearm pistols in melee range, your effective attack skill is increased by 40% (up to 60% through specialization) of your unmodified melee skill for all purposes, including the damage done
  • Added Bullet Time feat - When activated, reduces action point cost of firing firearm pistols by 30% (up to 50% through specialization) until the end of the turn.
Throwing Knives
  • Reduced the base damage by about 20%, they now incur 130% of mech resistance and threshold (up from 125%), but the damage that passes the armor is increased by 75%
  • Added Remote Surgeon feat - Increases the unresisted damage modifier of throwing knives by additional 50% (up to 100% through specialization)
  • Added Knife Throw's Gloves which increase knife throwing precision by 5% and reduce AP cost by 3
  • Added Shock Shurikens
AI
  • Certain plasma sentries will now deploy their plasma cannons in real-time and wait for the player
Mechanical Tweaks
  • Incendiary grenades will no longer be activated if they hit a traversable water tile (they will trigger if they hit an occupied water tile, though)
  • Groin Guard now also grants immunity to Dirty Kick's extra stun duration
  • TNT Charge will now use the new explosion visuals (same as HE grenades)
  • Pyrokinetic stream will now emit light
  • Added a small cooldown to playing sounds that should, hopefully, prevent volume stacking
  • Fixed a number of ability and feat descriptions to properly state "humanoid" instead of "human" if they affect that category
  • Fixed a number of ability and item descriptions to state when the bonuses are only affecting weapon and unarmed attacks
  • Fortitude will now help with poison resistance (mostly manifested through reducing poison duration)
Content
  • Added Napalm Barrels, a stronger version of regular explosive barrel that also spawns fire; these can be thrown by the usual suspects
  • A certain very, very bad gas that's been released into an under-passage hideout now dissipates after some time
  • Added the Lost Vault dungeon in Upper Caves
  • Added new Core City sewers random fragments
  • Added new GMS vault cave which are randomly selected when starting a new game. Ongoing playthroughs will still have the default map
  • Added a new source of very bad gas inside a certain bunker in Upper Caves
  • [Expedition] Added the ability to climb up the cliff at the entrance to the Black Sea (requires some high agility)
  • [Expedition] Added a rift to Fort Apogee
  • [Expedition] Added a certain mentioned wild boar to the Hathorian hunting grounds. Snort!
Content Tweaks
  • Decreased movement speed and movements points of Tithonus Lab residents; also tweaked their AI as to make them more likely to give up chasing the player
  • Added the ability to peek over the guard rail outside Arke's power room to see if anything's waiting near the elevator
  • The player can now tell the Core City warehouse defenders to set up their defenses at three different positions in the building
  • Various minor changes to the Lost Vault entrance area, as well as some npc and dialog tweaks
  • The Emporion Mall Lunatics are now a bit less sensitive to sound. Reckless players will still be able to alert entire floors, but playing with care will result in fighting smaller groups at a time, which also prevents pathfinding slowdowns
  • Jookhela got a new coat of paint
  • [Expedition] Minor tweaks to Ray's Shop as to prevent a few camera vision exploits
  • [Expedition] Dude will now make you another Juice in case you waste the first one.
  • [Expedition] He'll also take hydraulic fluid from DC instead of a certain gun lube (as they're both mineral oil-based).
  • [Expedition] ...and he accepts mushroom brew as currency following a certain event.
  • [Expedition] Reduced the slowdown that occurs during the boat-riding cutscene at the start of the expedition
Bugs
  • Pyrokinetic stream will now properly apply Thermodynamicity when the invocation ends
  • Pyromaniac's extra damage from specialization will now properly be applied
  • Thermodynamic Destabilization can now trigger Pyromaniac
  • Psi window will now be hidden while the character sheet is open like other windows are
  • Invoking Psycho-temporal Contraction while already under effects of one will not grant you more action and movement points in that turn
  • Fixed the value rounding bug when displaying character damage resistances
  • Fixed the bug that caused doppelgangers to not despawn in real-time combat
  • Fixed a long standing animation glitch that caused the animation to abruptly end after the psi ability is invoked
  • Fixed the bug that would sometimes cause the game to crash when an acid barrel is thrown
  • Fixed the bug that would sometimes cause the death screen to be uninteractble when you die during a cutscene
  • Fixed being able to avoid confronting Jookhela through the power of turn-based mode exploits
  • Fixed Tobias in Tithonus Lab turning on the power during turn-based combat instead of trying to make sure it's off
  • Fixed Aran not getting a health buff on Dominating
  • Fixed GMS level 3 doors not working with automatic door opening option checked
  • Fixed sometimes not getting xp when completing a certain assassination quest for Edgar
  • [Expedition] Fixed not being able to talk to Katya after visiting "the cave", as well as a certain dialog option not showing up regarding something you see at the entrance to the Black Sea
  • Various minor dialog and map fixes and tweaks

That's all for now. Let us know how you like the new content.

Cheers.

17
Site Feedback & Suggestions / The Great Purge
« on: October 14, 2020, 12:20:16 pm »
I deleted bunch of bot accounts. While it's unlikely that any legit accounts were caught up in the purge, it's a possibility.

All accounts that have posts or PMs should be safe. If some account with these happens to be deleted, please e-mail me at admin@underrail.com and I'll take a look.

18
Development Log / Dev Log #68: The Psi Question
« on: August 31, 2020, 10:37:53 pm »


Hi guys,

On September 7th the psi update will be release on the main branch, but before that happens I want to briefly address this controversial change again and also offer a compromise.

First I'd like to restate that the reason the psi was reworked was not primarily because of its power, though it will reign that in a bit as well. I will not list all the major arguments I've given in the previous dev log here again, but the sum of it is that the psi is too cheap to spec in, in comparison to what it offers, and that there is no way to expand upon it without even further overloading it with combat versatility. There were multiple ways to address it and I went with what I think fits well. I went in a bit too hard with the restrictions, which I have since eased on a bit (check out the patch notes for details), but the point of the experimental build was to tweak these numbers and mechanics anyway. I think it's in good place now, where both the (now somewhat nerfed) pure psi wizards and hybrids are viable, though they will require more management in terms of resources and psi selection.

Now in terms of adding more management to the psi build, one could argue that this is adding unnecessary tedium, but if look back at the history of Underrail's development you will find that we do tend to add these sort of complexities and restrictions to our mechanics as we flesh them out. Player is intended to have to pay attention and do some busywork in order to keep his character going. There used to be time when we had no weight restrictions, no selling restrictions, and at one point guns didn't even require ammo, though, to be fair, that was before the game was even available to play to the public. So you may not like this part of our design approach, but it is not at all inconsistent with what we did in the past.

The difference here is, however, that the game has been released for a long time and that the way the psi currently works has been something that's been firmly established. I will concede to the argument that it may not be fair to change it at such a late time. I should have done it way sooner, back when I added the last batch of psi abilities in the late early access stage, but I didn't and I don't have a good excuse. I do, however, still maintain that this is a good and necessary change that will benefit the game in way of build diversity, especially in the long run, even if it comes a bit late.

But for those that are firmly against this change, or maybe just want to finish their current cave wizard rampage, I've made a separate Legacy branch (on both platforms) that will permanently host 1.1.1.6 version of the game. It will receive no updates and no other version of the game will ever be preserved in this way in the future (don't worry, no further major mechanical changes are planned anyway). If you do hop between the version be advised that, as always, saves of a higher version are not compatible with older version of the game. So if you intend to keep playing on this version (either temporarily or permanently), you can switch now.

I hope that this compromise will be agreeable to most of you.

Cheers.

19
Development Log / Dev Log #3: Real-time 3D Models
« on: August 26, 2020, 02:41:08 pm »
Hi guys,

One thing that we wanted to overcome for a long time when it comes to Underrail's engine are the limitation of the prerendered character models, and in Infusion we're finally going to do it. Character and creature models are going to be rendered in real-time in a style as closely matching that of the (new) prerendered backgrounds as possible in order to retain the established visual feel of the game.



This is going to allow us to display the exact gear on your character, as well as NPCs. If they are wearing a crafted piece of armor, you'll be able to see exactly from what materials it is made (type of leather, carrier vest, metal, etc) and what kind of enhancements it has. Same for the weapons. Also, this will allow us to model the unique pieces to complete that experience of wielding something as awesome as, say, Balor's Hammer. Some mechanical changes when it comes to itemizations are going to follow with this change as well. I'm currently inclined to make the pants a separate slot and I also have an idea for another slot, but I'm going to talk about that more later down the road.

Furthermore, you'll now be able to customize your character by picking their haircut, facial hair (as well as color of these), and skin tone, and maybe even adding tattoos and other features on top of that.

Also, this will allow us to add a lot more animations to characters and creatures which, in addition to the eye candy, will also make the combat more readable as potentially special attacks can now have their own special animations.
Let us know how you like the new models.

Cheers.

21
Development Log / Dev Log #2: Shiny Particles
« on: July 24, 2020, 10:18:28 pm »
Originally posted on May 16, 2020.

Hi guys,

We're slowly wrapping up the work on the next content update for Underrail. This one is going to be mostly oriented towards the water areas in terms of content, and, as hinted before, will also feature mechanical changes to psi. It's coming soontm and I don't really have anything more to say about it until it arrives, so instead I'll show you something cool that we've made for Infusion.



We're developing a particle system for the updated engine that will allow us to quickly make nice looking and varied effects. Besides being an upgrade to the previous system visually, the more important aspect of it is that it will allow me to more easily add new psi, special, and item abilities, because now I can quickly make effects for those, which was the most tasking part of the process. Also, the level designers will be able to use the new system to further customize the areas and really bring the environment to life.

Let us know how you like new visuals.

Cheers.

22
Development Log / Dev Log #1: Codename Infusion
« on: July 24, 2020, 10:14:20 pm »
Originally posted on March 11, 2020.

Hi guys,

Back in October I mentioned that we started working on a new standalone Underrail campaign. This is still true, but we've also decided that we're going to give the engine a major upgrade which will help us create a much better game, both visually and mechanically. The thing is - there are certain design and technical decisions that were made early during the development of Underrail that are very limiting to us now, but are not easy to change just due to the amount of content that would have to be redone. So instead of taking a hammer to our beloved game, we're going to improve upon all these things (that we yearned to do for years) in a fresh stand-alone game that will still be based on the same engine core and gameplay mechanics. We call this game Underrail: Infusion.

I'm not going to list all the things that we intend to change/improve upon in Infusion, but I will say that they include both the visuals, as well as mechanics and world design. I'm going to try to post more frequent dev logs, as I did back in Underrail's alpha days, as to keep you guys in the loop. All that you see in these early days you should consider to be work-in-progress. I don't expect we're going to enter full production any time soon - not this year, for sure, as for now we're just focusing on improving the engine, the toolset and optimizing the content pipelines.

First thing I want to show you are the new environment graphics. Keep in mind that Infusion will be taking place in a completely different part of Underrail, so this is not a rework of any existing tile set, but a new one.



I've done a lot of work on the rendering engine and the way the assets are organized and rendered which allows Mac to more easily produce and organize a bunch of different variations of the same object, and also to easily animate them or give them other visual properties and behaviors without having to go into the gameplay code. Inversely, gameplay stuff can now be easily implemented before the assets themselves are made as they are only loosely coupled. This is going to greatly improve our efficiency when churning out new content. Technically, we're sticking with the same tile size (96x48) but we're going to make the tile relatively smaller in regards to objects, that is, everything is going to get bigger, which will increase the graphical fidelity. This is going to affect various combat mechanics as well, but we're discuss this at a later date.

That's it for now. We have more exciting stuff that we've been working on in the meantime as well, but it's not quite ready to be shown still. Let us know how you guys like the new visuals.

Cheers.

23


Hi guys,

We're rolling out a new content update. It's going to land on experimental branch first in order to thoroughly test it out.

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.

The first major theme of this update is the change to psi mechanics. The full changes are listed below. They are not primarily meant to kick the full psi builds down a notch (though they will do that), but to address the following issues with psi that I find the most problematic and detrimental to the game as a whole, not just in terms of difficulty:
  • Psi gives you too many utilities. Due to how the psi functions now (prior to this update) it's almost impossible to add new stuff to psi without extending the already bloated spectrum of combat utilities of any given psi generalist (which most psi builds are) even further, since, unlike with combat utilities, there are no limits to what a psi invoker can access during combat.
  • Psi is cheap to spec into. Even though every psi school is a separate skill, they are all based on a single base ability, which is the only one required to be maxed out in order for your character to be powerful. If you invest heavily enough into it, the psi abilities themselves will make up for many deficiencies in other areas. No other robust build works like this, they usually require at least moderately strong investment into a secondary base ability.
  • Psi does not require any expendable resource. Pretty much every other build does so I introduced a resource for psi as well. Now it has a dual (or hybrid if you will) resource management aspect. Also I used this opportunity to put a sort of a limit to how much psionic output you can dish out in a single fight, so we'll see how this works out.
  • This is the least important point, but it's still worth addressing. Some abilities are a bit too cheesey and easy to exploit so I changed them up a bit. This does not make them perfectly balanced or un-cheeseable and I know there is other stuff out there that's cheese as well. These are just the ones that bothered me the most and were long overdue to change.
Anyway, the detailed changes are in the list below. What I hope to do in the future with psi now that I've dealt with psi generalist question is to facilitate more hybrid builds, which I think the new system will support well.

* * * * *

The other major theme of the update is a lot of new content for the waterways - one big new dungeon, a couple of smaller locations, many new random encounters and other stuff. I'll leave it to you guys to find out for yourselves.

On a related note I halved the price of all the fancy jet skis and all the parts, so they will be easier to acquire now. We do not need such ridiculous prices anymore since we added the economic component to the difficulty settings.

* * * * *

Here's the full change log:

General
  • Improved the start up time for the game
  • Initimidation now scales off either Strength or Will (whichever is higher)
  • [Expedition] Halved the cost of most jet ski frames, engines, batteries and suspensions
  • [Expedition] Increased the damage of all jet ski weapon attacks
Psi
  • You now have to "innervate" psi abilities that you plan to use and you're limited in the number of innervated psi slots (1 + 1 per 3 intelligence, up to maximum of 6). Existing psi characters can use Will stat instead for the number of slots with some downsides, or they can opt to switch to Int by consuming a pill that's been subtly slipped into their pockets.
  • Innervating psi abilities from multiple psi schools will now incur global 15% psi cost penalty per additional school
  • Introduced psi reserves, which is the long term psi resource that does not regenerate naturally, but through the usage of psi inhalant which can not be done in combat. Psi reserves are depleted when you regenerate psi naturally or through psi boosters. Maximum amount of psi reserves is equal to 5 times the maximum psi points.
  • Psi inhalant is craftable with some skill in biology and chemistry.
  • All existing player characters will get generous amount of psi inhalants first time you load the game in new version
  • Upon loading the game for the first time in the new version, a random set of psi abilities will be pre-innervated for you. If you don't like the random selection, just reload the same save.
Psi Abilities
  • Force Field psi cost changed to 40 (up from 25)
  • Force Field is now destructable and has its health points scale with invoker's skill. Each segment of the force field has separate health, but destroying one will destroy all of them.
  • Thermodynamic Destabilization base damage percentage changed to 30% (down from 50%) and it now scales by 0.5% (down from 1%) per skill point and is capped at 100%.
  • Thermodynamic Destabilization action point cost changed to 10 (down from 20)
  • Enrage maximum duration changed to 2 (down from 4)
  • Increased the amount of damage of Neural Overload and Psi-cognitive Interruption blocked by resolve
  • Added psi mentors for all psionic abilities in the game (except one) to the random loot table
  • [Expedition] Psycho-temporal dilation and Limited temporal increment learning requirements swapped to their correct positions
  • [Expedition] Psycho-temporal contraction now has a high chance of causing its opposite (with randomized power) when it expires
Items
  • Biohazard suit now provides full protection from a certain very, very bad gas
  • Spearhead sniper rifles will now have base action points of 32 (up from 30)
  • Rapid Reloader firearm enhancement will now also have a 25% chance of restoring a random amount of action points ranging from 50% to 100% of the base action point cost of the weapon (but capped at 20ap); this can only trigger once per turn
  • Dragunov now costs 30 ap to fire (up from 25) and has 60% chance to restore 10-20 ap once per turn; also has slightly increased damage
  • Added shiv blueprint
  • [Expedition] Psionic Accelerator now increases psi regeneration by 50% (up from 20%)
  • [Expedition] Added Kzozel Yantar, a stronger version of Kzozel
Creatures
  • Reduced the throwing precision of hunchback mutants
  • Mutant dog's acid blob attack will now deal some of its damage directly
Quests / Areas
  • Added a mercantile check when paying to use the Wormhole
  • Silas' death will no longer fail the attack on Scrapper base quest; the player can now speak with Colton to get the reward instead
  • Added shiv components to certain encounters in which the player loses his inventory
  • Added new graphics for a few secret cave doors
  • [Expedition] Added more content for the waterways - one big new dungeon, a couple of smaller locations, many new random encounters and other stuff
  • [Expedition] Added some new ways to escape from a jail guarded by a hefty knife thrower
  • [Expedition] Added a vending machine to the Gray Army base; it accepts zlatortiyas only
  • [Expedition] In the same base, it is now possible to translate messages on one of the computers with sufficient intelligence
  • [Expedition] Added a tool with which the player can repair/configure a certain camp defense asset; found in multiple locations in the Black Sea
Visual
  • You can now zoom the game in by holding shift while scrolling the mouse button, but the feature needs to be enabled in the options first
  • High explosive and frag greandes and mines now have new visual effects
UI
  • Made a new death screen that will allow you to scroll through the combat log to see exactly what killed you if you didn't catch it during combat
  • Fixed the scroll bars so they can be mouse scrolled when moused over
Feats
  • Locus Of Control - Change AoE radius to 2 (down from 3)
  • Force User - now also increases health of force field by 50% (plus 5% per spec, max 5 spec points)
  • Critical Power - Base bonus changed to 1% (down from 1.5%) and spec bonus changed to 0.1% (down from 0.15%); I'm not happy with this feat in general. Straight unconditional passive damage boost feats is something I'm going to avoid in the future for sure
Tweaks
  • Acid pistols (and other acid attacks) will now spill acid on the ground regardless of whether they hit the primary target or not
  • Certain random encounters will no longer appear in low-level zones (Arsonist in early under-passages, rabid dogs in Crossroad Caves, etc.)
  • Balor now has Sprint, and gets an adrenaline shot on higher difficulties
  • Cliff can now be given a coagulation shot to stop him from bleeding to death
  • Kareem now needs his "memory refreshed" when asked about certain things
  • The Black Eels questline can now be started after you've found the drill rotor circuit board
  • Halved the amount of money Mykola needs to repair one big machine from 2000 to 1000 charons
  • Some dialogs tweaked to reflect the new psi changes
Bugs
  • Fixed the bug that cause the energy shield to dissipate at 2% instead of the nominal 10% rate every turn, but I set it to 5% base now instead because 10% just seems a bit too severe to me now; also changed the minimal dissipation rate to 1.5% (down from 2%)
  • Explosive barrels and various misc. explosions should now properly trigger volatile entities such as mines
  • Throwable barrels and rocks will now behave properly when throw in water (they will not detonate on impact)
  • You can no longer double-click while holding a modifier key (shift, alt, or ctrl). This is to prevent situations such as rapdily alt-left clicking to transfer items from a container from also triggering the double-click event and transfering extra items. Let me know if this
  • causes any anomalous behavior.
  • Sledgehammer and machete handle now also count as metal components like knife one
  • Fixed the bug that would cause the caster tentacles to crash the game after the player dies or disengages
  • Ranged weapon innate precision modifier will now always be applied if it's negative
  • Fixed Gorsky's base not being renovated on easy difficulty
  • Fixed sometimes not getting a quest note (and subsequent xp once it's completed) from Kohlmeier when starting his quest
  • Fixed traps not despawning after Foundry mines have been cleared, which resulted in hostile miners
  • Fixed spears and nets not appearing in the loot locker in the Arena
  • Fixed Saban not properly receiving his spare W2C ammo
  • [Expedition] Fixed JSHQ bioscan not detecting mutagens
  • [Expedition] Fixed an entrance to a cave near a certain homestead being impassable, even if discovered
  • [Expedition] Fixed an important flag not being set when going through some branches during a discussion about a truly deathly topic with the Ferryman
  • [Expedition] Fixed electrified floor destroying auto-turrets in Water Treatment Facility in one of the variations; also added a sound effect during discharge as to give the player a warning
  • [Expedition] Fixed a bug where sleeping in the camp (and under very specific circumstances) triggering a certain crucial event even if the player, paradoxically, already prevented its occurence
  • [Expedition] Fixed the final quest note prematurely being marked as completed
  • [Expedition] Fixed a crash that may occur if the player obtains some floaty things for the camp too early
  • [Expedition] Fixed certain native weapons being non-equippable
  • [Expedition] Fixed Captain Grim sometimes ending dialog when telling him about some facilities
  • [Expedition] Fixed being able to sleep in the camp even after you got fired
  • [Expedition] Fixed the bug that caused players to get stuck on some hives after destroying them.
  • Minor dialog/map/scripting tweaks

That's it for now guys. Let us know how you like the changes.

Cheers.

24
Bugs / MOVED: Next patch?
« on: July 11, 2020, 01:49:14 pm »

25
Development Log / Dev Log #66: Shiny Particles
« on: May 15, 2020, 10:53:57 pm »
Hi guys,

We're slowly wrapping up the work on the next content update for Underrail. This one is going to be mostly oriented towards the water areas in terms of content, and, as hinted before, will also feature mechanical changes to psi. It's coming soontm and I don't really have anything more to say about it until it arrives, so instead I'll show you something cool that we've made for Infusion.



We're developing a particle system for the updated engine that will allow us to quickly make nice looking and varied effects. Besides being an upgrade to the previous system visually, the more important aspect of it is that it will allow me to more easily add new psi, special, and item abilities, because now I can quickly make effects for those, which was the most tasking part of the process. Also, the level designers will be able to use the new system to further customize the areas and really bring the environment to life.

Speaking of which, we now have an additional team member working full time on level and quest design, as well as writing, so we're going to be able to produce more content faster in the future. We're planning on at least one more major content update after this one, but, of course, at some point we're going to have to focus more on Infusion.

Let us know how you like new visuals.

Cheers.

26
Development Log / Dev Log #65: Codename Infusion
« on: March 11, 2020, 06:16:03 pm »
Hi guys,

Back in October I mentioned that we started working on a new standalone Underrail campaign. This is still true, but we've also decided that we're going to give the engine a major upgrade which will help us create a much better game, both visually and mechanically. The thing is - there are certain design and technical decisions that were made early during the development of Underrail that are very limiting to us now, but are not easy to change just due to the amount of content that would have to be redone. So instead of taking a hammer to our beloved game, we're going to improve upon all these things (that we yearned to do for years) in a fresh stand-alone game that will still be based on the same engine core and gameplay mechanics. We call this game Underrail: Infusion.

I'm not going to list all the things that we intend to change/improve upon in Infusion, but I will say that they include both the visuals, as well as mechanics and world design. I'm going to try to post more frequent dev logs, as I did back in Underrail's alpha days, as to keep you guys in the loop. All that you see in these early days you should consider to be work-in-progress. I don't expect we're going to enter full production any time soon - not this year, for sure, as for now we're just focusing on improving the engine, the toolset and optimizing the content pipelines.

First thing I want to show you are the new environment graphics. Keep in mind that Infusion will be taking place in a completely different part of Underrail, so this is not a rework of any existing tile set, but a new one.



I've done a lot of work on the rendering engine and the way the assets are organized and rendered which allows Mac to more easily produce and organize a bunch of different variations of the same object, and also to easily animate them or give them other visual properties and behaviors without having to go into the gameplay code. Inversely, gameplay stuff can now be easily implemented before the assets themselves are made as they are only loosely coupled. This is going to greatly improve our efficiency when churning out new content. Technically, we're sticking with the same tile size (96x48) but we're going to make the tile relatively smaller in regards to objects, that is, everything is going to get bigger, which will increase the graphical fidelity. This is going to affect various combat mechanics as well, but we're discuss this at a later date.

That's it for now. We have more exciting stuff that we've been working on in the meantime as well, but it's not quite ready to be shown still. Let us know how you guys like the new visuals.

Also, in a few months you can expect the new content update for Underrail. This one is probably going to be released on experimental branch first and will stay there for a while, just due to the nature of the gameplay changes I've made. I'm sure you'll all be very happy with the changes, but just in case you might want to experience psionic characters in their current form before that happens.

Cheers.

27
General / Calling all psionics
« on: February 12, 2020, 11:03:53 am »
Hey, guys, I'm doing a little harmless experiment. Could you share your psi wizard saves for the sake of science?

I'm especially interested in optimized overpowered psi generalists, for no particular reason.

edit: use dropbox or some such

28
General / MOVED: New Player looking for SMG build
« on: December 27, 2019, 08:32:15 pm »

29


Hi guys,

We're rolling out the first content update after the Expedition release and we're doing it directly on the main branch so good luck everyone! But first, a few words regarding our current state and our future plans.

Despite having hardly any mainstream press coverage upon release, Expedition sold decently well in the initial wave and then kept doing well in the following weeks. This is very encouraging because this tells me that during the years we did manage to establish a big and dedicated enough of a fanbase, that is keeping an eye on the game and spreading the word about it, that we are no longer at the mercy of whims of individual mainstream journos of dubious gaming pedigree. Speaking of individual whims, we did in the end get a huge visibility boost (that translated into a financial one) from our friendly Ugandan YouTuber in the form of this video. Much love to Sseth.

Our plans for the future are two-fold. First, we intend to release at least a couple more content updates. These updates will vary in size, but you can probably expect something comparable to this one. They will feature mostly minor quest changes, new items, couple new areas and possibly some moderate mechanical changes. I don't know how frequent these will be, but we'll do our best not to keep you waiting for too long.

Secondly, and this will be our major focus, we'll start working on another expansion for the game. This one will be a standalone campaign in which you'll play as a new character in an area that will not be connected to the main game. We decided to do it this way for two reasons: first, because the base game is big enough as it is and we don't want to add more of the big content chunks either horizontally or through further character scaling (we will be adding some smaller stuff through the content updates, though); and secondly, we want to be able to revisit certain base mechanics and design patterns we used in the base game and improve upon them without either making the game inconsistent or having to redesign major parts of the base game. We'll talk more about what these things are and how we're improving upon them in the future.

That's it regarding our plans. We'll try to keep you guys posted on the development.

* * * * *

Anyway, here's the patch notes for the update (the list includes the changes from 1.1.0.13 and .14 that were not present on the main branch until now):

Tweaks
  • Cooked shot with incendiary chemical blob pistol will now apply fear effects to the fire-fearing creatures
  • Fence door made a bit easier to click
  • Reduced the maximum combat and movement speed up while in turn-based mode to 500% (down from 1000%) to avoid it glitching out some abilities
  • Kareem and Freddy now also sell fish
  • Sapke now uses W2C bullets
  • Loot from Arena matches will now be stored in the loot locker behind Lanista
  • [Expedition] Locusts will now spawn out of the hive every second turn instead of every turn
  • [Expedition] The sounds of crabs poping out of the ground will no longer stack in order to burst your eardrums
Creatures
  • Added Mole Cricket - a puny early game insect
  • Added Young Psi Beetle - a weaker version on regular psi beetle to be used in the early game on lower difficulties
  • Added Small Sentry Bot - a weaker version of the regular sentry bot to be used in the early game on lower difficulties
  • A certain evil robot assistant has been upgraded
  • Balor and Cornell now have unique models
  • Core City faction members now have distinctive looks

Crafting
  • Added a throwing net blueprint. One net requires 50 fabric scraps.
  • Added a thin and frag grenade and mine case blueprints. Create multiple cases from a metal plate (scales with plate quality).
  • Added lockpicks blueprint. They can be crafter from any type of metal plate and lockpick level scales with metal quality. Also at very high levels of metal quality you'll create bonus lockpicks. This is a rare blueprint.
  • Changed the required amount of scraps when creating a repair kit to 40 (up from 20) per stack
  • When recycling an item, the total weight of the scraps will always be less than the weight of the original item

Items
  • Added a faction specific armors and item for JKK, Coretech, Praetorian Security, Protectorate, Free Drones, and [REDACTED]
  • TNT Charge value changed to 800 (up from 350)
  • Added digital timer and cardboard container as a static merchandise to several traders
  • Huxkey can now be sold as electronic device
  • Improved Jawbone crossbow
  • Added a new unique crossbow somewhere out there
  • Changed the weight of repair kits to 1 and advanced repair kits to 2 (up from 0.25)
  • Changed the value of .44 JHP bullet to 52 (up from 20). No idea why it was so cheap before.
  • Fishing rod made a bit easier to click
  • Fishing rod's   range has also been increased, making it possible to fish from some elevated platforms
  • Dismantling the fishing rod will now be done by right clicking and choosing that option
  • Added graphite as static merchandise to couple of stores
  • [Expedition] By popular demand the certain fancy armor will now sport the hood and mask on the player character also
  • [Expedition] Added bison milk consumable
  • [Expedition] Sormirbaren Spirit Staff no longer reduces psi costs
Quests/Areas
  • Added a couple of mini-dungeons that may randomly appear in the early game
  • The player can now ask Quinton for another set of putrefying bolts in case they used them up and still haven't managed to finish the quest
  • Fixed a gate leading to Depot A not being lockpickable
  • Added an agility check for climbing over the fence near the Protectorate embassy in Junkyard
  • [Expedition] Added a few extra visual clues to that cool dude's first old home; also lowered safe's required lockpicking skill to 60
  • [Expedition] Added an agility check for climbing over a wall in JSHQ's barracks
  • [Expedition] Tweaked the way camp loses supplies over time (slowed down and made a bit more consistent and dependent on more factors)
Feats
  • Cut-throat action point cost changed to 25 (down from 30) and can now also be performed out of stealth against incapacitated targets

UI
  • You will now see which targets qualify for Ambush feat proc based on their and your current location. The indicator will be placed left of the target's health bar.
  • Fixed the small offset of different chemical ammo icons that are show above the XP bar
  • The log will now write "is destroyed" for non-living targets
  • [Expedition] Fixed the vehicle weight display bug
Bugs
  • You will no longer be able to export your character while riding a vehicle
  • When casting electronic imprint on a "melee" trap, such as bear or blob trap, the trap will no longer jump to your location to trap you, but instead be destroyed in a regular manner; However, in addition to this, the electronic imprint will also automatically backfire in case you attempt to place it on top of any trap and apply its damage and stun to the invoker
  • Fixed the bug that would sometimes cause the game to crash when fighting t-lings in DC
  • Fixed the bug that caused the Expose Weakness tooltip to sometimes show the wrong reduction value when specced into it
  • Fixed transition problems with the rocks gap on the Forsaken Island
  • Fixed the exploit that allows Forcefield and some other abilities to be used to determine if there are hidden NPCs on targeted tiles
  • Hyperallergenic will now also trigger when consuming psi boosters
  • Fixed the bug that caused a certain popular NPC to kill you in the end for no reason
  • Industrial bots are now immune to immobilization
  • Fixed the bug that caused knife to be invisible when wearing a riot armor with a shield and a cloak
  • Fixed the bug that caused chemical destabilization to expire before the damage over time effects (such as acidic entanglement) are applied for that turn; from now on, when resolving a turn, all damage over time effects will be applied before affecting the expiration of any status effect
  • Fixed the bug that caused the cameras to sometimes not detect your various thieving shenanigans (such as the case sometimes was in Ray's shop).
  • You can no longer decapitate the last boss
  • Fixed the bug that caused the keybindings to stop working when the map window is closed (by dialog or opening a container, for example) while you're entering a custom note
  • Fixed the bug that would cause the crawlers and deathstalkers to subtley hint at their future hiding location when escaping by using the ceiling
  • Fixed hostilities with Gorksy in CC propagating to SGS even when they shouldn't
  • Fixed a bug in Foundry prison where erasing security footage didn't prevent hostilities with the rest of the settlement in certain cases
  • [Expedition] Fixed the bug that allowed the special ability of a certain unique armor to be turned on even when not wearing it
  • [Expedition] Fixed the bug that caused Razor to become invisible when using the shotgun
  • [Expedition] Fixed the bug that would cause multiple paranormal entities to spawn from a certain corpse instead of just one
  • [Expedition] The expedition will now leave the items from the player's locker behind upon undeployment
  • [Expedition] Fixed Ethan being able to teach the players temporal manipulation abilities without them having psi empathy
  • [Expedition] Fixed a certain agent not recognizing you gave him Something Important(tm) in certain instances
  • [Expedition] Fixed some minor ending slides issues
  • [Expedition] Fixed an instance in which a certain kidnapping event can occur even when it shouldn't
  • [Expedition] Fixed a scripting bug that in some instances caused a transition error when entering the Arch Island docks map
  • [Expedition] Fixed being able to get a new mission even after being fired from the expedition
  • [Expedition] Fixed a group of sec-troopers appearing inside an important building in the camp when they shouldn't
  • [Expedition] Fixed Seeger sometimes hanging out in front of the Arch Island Keep when he should be in his tent
  • [Expedition] Fixed an issue with certain attacks occurring even after the defenders have left the Black Sea
  • [Expedition] Fixed the bug that caused the crash after completing the Crimson Horticultural Center (potentially can be triggered on other points during the course of the main quest)
  • [Expedition] Fixed being able to kill a certain man hanging out in the Dominating Bar in Core City with gas grenades, traps, etc.
  • [Expedition] Choosing to destroy a certain robot in Lemurian Health Center no longer breaks the quest
  • [Expedition] Fixed the bug that prevented the Sormirbaren Ballistas to not be able to detect you fully on their own
  • [Expedition] Increased the range of Sweep attack to at least match the range of regular spear attacks
  • [Expedition] Plasma mines will now have the proper explosion radius of 2, instead of 3
  • [Expedition] Fixed the bug that caused Shield Bash (and possibly some other special melee attacks) to use the current weapon crit chance and bonus stats   
  • [Expedition] Shotgun will no longer trigger Ambush since it's not a single target weapon   
  • [Expedition] Opportunist will no longer trigger on sea snakes
  • [Expedition] You can no longer mount jet skis while immobilized
  • [Expedition] Fixed bunch of locust hives that were inaccessible for melee attacks (this will not affect the current playthroughs in which you've already visited the area of the hive)
  • [Expedition] Fixed the bug that prevented the paranormal phenomena in certain graveyard to chill out if you leave the area for a while
  • [Expedition] Fixed a bug with a certain kidnapping event which was introduced in 1.0.1.13 experimental
  • [Expedition] Fixed a certain captain's visitor coexisting in two places at once
  • [Expedition] Fixed the certain infinite trading profit bug that was available to the master merchants
  • [Expedition] Psycho-temporal Contraction will no longer be affected by armor penalty on following turns
  • Various minor dialog and map fixes

Let us know how you like the changes and additions. Cheers!

30
General / TEAM VACATION UNTIL SEPTEMBER 9th
« on: August 16, 2019, 01:34:59 pm »
Hey guys,

We're all going on vacation until September 9th, so while we might still have some presence on the forums and Discord. We won't be doing any development, bug fixing or nerfing until then. So have fun and good luck!

Cheers,
Styg

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 10