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.
Styg explains the new armor mechanics of Underrail: Infusion:
Dev Log #7: New Armor Mechanics
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?
The Heavy Duty DLC for Underrail is now available on GOG and Steam.
Description:
This DLC adds three new weapon types - grenade launchers, machine guns and miniguns, as well as a special high-level side mission that will challenge even the most hardcore UnderRail veterans.
Key features:
- New skill "Heavy Weapons" which covers two new weapon types - machine guns and miniguns - Grenade launchers, a area of effect type weapon, added to Guns skill - New high-level side mission where you'll fight against elite enemies - New feats
Couchpotato spotted DevLog 73 about patch 1.2.0.0 and the Heavy Duty DLC:
Dev Log 73: Version 1.2.0.0 and the Incoming DLC
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.
This DLC adds three new weapon types - grenade launchers, machine guns and miniguns, as well as a special high-level side mission that will challenge even the most hardcore Underrail veterans.
Key features:
Grenade launchers, a area of effect type weapon, added to Guns skill
New high-level side mission where you'll fight against elite enemies
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.
Underrail: Infusion - Dev Log 5: Character Customization
by Silver, Monday - August 08, 2022 23:35
A new dev log for Underrail: Infusion promises improved character models with the new engine.
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.
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
A new content update for Underrail adds new areas if you have the Expedition DLC.
Dev Log #69: Crossing the Styx (1.1.3.0)
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
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
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
Certain plasma sentries will now deploy their plasma cannons in real-time and wait for the player
Mechanical Tweaks
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
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.
A new update for Underrail talks about shiny particles.
Friday, 15 May 2020 22:16 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.
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.
TheGG interviewed Dejan Radisic, who developed Underrail, and asked him about development and what he is planning.
Nenad A lot of people say that Underrail is hard, sometimes even too hard. Did you plan to make a game like this, and do you think the games today are too easy?
Dejan I don’t necessarily agree with the notion that Underrail is hard, and would say that it requires the player to be involved and pay attention. Once the player is familiarized with the game mechanics and weapons at hand, the game gets a lot easier.
Since the game expects the player to make the effort and pay attention, it can look too hard for new players.
When it comes to today’s games generally, I think we have a wide variety of games, thanks to digital distribution, especially when it comes to “niche” games. I think that people today have no problem, finding the games that they find hard or challenging.
A new update for Underrail announces a new expansion is in the works which will feature a new main character.
Version 1.1.1.0 - Core City Factions Update
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):
The Underrail: Expedition expansion for Underrail, has been released.
This DLC expands the base campaign with many new waterway maps that connect various harbors of the Underrail as well as adds huge new region called the Black Sea, a massive underground body of water. Take a break from the usual metro-crawling to take a boat to this infamous place. There, among the old and mysterious ruins of an age long past, you'll face the vicious fauna, hostile natives, cunning pirates, and something far more sinister than all of those.
Your voyage through vastness of the Black Sea will shed new light on the history of the world of Underrail and the forces that shaped it.
Key features:
A brand-new story line that becomes available during the mid-game, which you can play your own way as no decision or hostile action will lock you out of completing it
Nearly 200 new areas to explore of various types - shores and islands of the Black Sea, mysterious underground facilities, pirate strongholds, and more
Many new wild creatures and a couple of new crazy robots to combat
15 different jet skis, ranging from the puny "junk jet" up to the dreaded "Devastator", that you can use to get around the Black sea and outmaneuver or obliterate your naval foes; upgrade your ride by purchasing more powerful vehicle parts
Three new distinct weapon types - shotguns, swords and spears allowing for a number of new play styles
Many new items, some obtained through crafting and some found in the world
New psionic skill, Temporal Manipulation, that focuses on delayed damage and utility
Specialization points that are obtained on each level past level 15 that allow you to further improve your feats
Leveling past level 25 and up to level 30 with a special pool of feats to choose from
In preparation of the expansion release, we're releasing a new version of the base game (on which the current testing version is running on) to make sure that no major breaking bugs have been introduced.
Underrail - 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, you select the game and choose More->Settings. Make sure you don't override all your live version saves just in case something goes horribly wrong.
Here are the patch notes:
General
Added the ability to speed up the game while out of combat
Added achievements to the GOG Galaxy version
Feats
Kneecap shot bleeding percentage no longer scales from perception, but base bleeding damage percentage changed to 125% (up from 75%)
Mechanics
Unarmed and fist weapon attacks now incur 140% of target's damage threshold and resistance (up from 125%)
Increased the damage reduction factor of resolve against neural overload
Resolve will now reduce the damage received from doppelgangers
Changed the way the burning damage stacks (in cases when it stacks) - the new burning time left equals either the time left of the existing effect or the duration of the new effect - whichever is longer; the old and the new periodic damage are adjusted so that they produce the same total damage over time; one of the major effects of this change is that you can no longer increase the amount of original damage by constantly resetting the timer
Separated fear effect caused by burning into a separate status effect and limited it to 2 turns regardless of how long the burning lasts (or if it's extinguished early); this will prevent the fear from lasting too long either from a long burning effect or because of the burning effect being refreshed; also this fear only occurs when a non-burning target is ignited and not when burning is being prolonged/refreshed
Items
Throwing nets now last up to 2 turns (down from 3) and have a cooldown of 4 turns (up from 3)
Bullets have new icons
Increased the chance to entangle enemies when firing acid blob pistol
Increased the chance to freeze enemies when firing cryo blob pistols
Reduced the chance to ignite enemies when firing incendiary blob pistol; the total burning damage done from igniting the target will remain the same, but will be spread over more turns (one turn per each 80% of the original damage repeated)
Reduced the weight of chemical ammo
Nice Things
Containers that you opened once will now have darker labels
Organic enemies that die while burning will now be smoking and appear charred
HE grenades and some other explosions will leave temporary marks on the ground
Gas clouds will now fade in/out
New barrels
Bugs
Fixed the bug that would allow player to cancel leveling up without being able to reattempt it
Fixed the problem that caused the items to take up weird positions in the filtered inventory when the player attempted to reorder them manually
Cut Throat no longer bypasses stun immunities
Corporeal Projection feat now has a proper icon (instead of using the one from Fast Metabolism)
Throwing knife will now again properly play impact sounds and effects
Fixed the bug that caused expertise to add the damage bonus for each separate mechanical damage listed for the weapon, instead of just once (you thought I'd never find out, did you?!)
Fixed the hole jump crash in Institute
Heavyweight will now always apply before Critical Power
Certain giant appendages can now be hit by cryokinetic orb
Changed the way the cryokinetic orb shards interact with the orb impact tile so now the creatures occupying the tile can also get hit by some of them
Punching bags will no longer bleed when you punch them
Global entities (those that can travel between maps) will now also have their suspicion meter drain with time
Incendiary chemical pistol burning effect will now stack damage with existing burning effect
Fixed the Nimble bug that would in certain situation give bonus movement points
Underrail Expedition, a DLC for Underrail, will become available on June 22. You can also apply as a tester for the DLC.
We've been wrapping the DLC up and the development is finished now. We're moving into the final stages of testing. First we'll do some internal testing on the new version before releasing it to our testers (we're accepting additional testers now, so if you're interested apply here) and then finally releasing it for everybody on July 22nd 2019.
This DLC expands the base campaign with many new waterway maps that connect various harbors of the Underrail as well as adds huge new region called the Black Sea, a massive underground body of water. Take a break from the usual metro-crawling to take a boat to this infamous place. There, among the old and mysterious ruins of an age long past, you’ll face the vicious fauna, hostile natives, cunning pirates, and something far more sinister than all of those.
Your voyage through vastness of the Black Sea will shed new light on the history of the world of Underrail and the forces that shaped it.
Key features:
A brand-new story line that becomes available during the mid-game, which you can play your own way as no decision or hostile action will lock you out of completing it
Nearly 200 new areas to explore of various types – shores and islands of the Black Sea, mysterious underground facilities, pirate strongholds, and more
Many new wild creatures and a couple of new crazy robots to combat
15 different jet skis, ranging from the puny "junk jet" up to the dreaded "Devastator", that you can use to get around the Black sea and outmaneuver or obliterate your naval foes; upgrade your ride by purchasing more powerful vehicle parts
Three new distinct weapon types - shotguns, swords and spears allowing for a number of new play styles
Many new items, some obtained through crafting and some found in the world
New psionic skill, Temporal Manipulation, that focuses on delayed damage and utility
Specialization points that are obtained on each level past level 15 that allow you to further improve your feats
Leveling past level 25 and up to level 30 with a special pool of feats to choose from
Dev Log #58 for Underrail is titled 'In the Halls of the Savage King' and shows off some screenshots of the area.
Hi guys,
We're basically done with the savage natives. You won't be able to join this faction but you'll be able to explore their territory and their lore, and in any case you'll come in contact with them regularly as they are the primary danger facing the expedition.
[screenshots]
Now we're taking a two week break to get some sun. After that we'll be putting the final touches on the rest of the Black Sea and preparing the closed alpha that will probably be available in the second half of September. It will be invite only. We'll be turning to the veterans of our community to help us test the massive amount of content we added so far to help us weed out bugs, handle any glaring imbalances as well as provide general feedback as to how to improve the expansion (within reason).
As the closed alpha is taking place we'll move to the final dungeon and the main quest wrap up.
Let us know how you like the new areas and I hope you guys are as excited for the closed alpha as we are. We really added a lot of things to the DLC over these few years, that, at times, we complete forget about them, and we're really interested to see how you guys use and abuse them to kill our precious NPCs before we nerf everything into the ground.
Just want to let you know that development is going more or less according to plan. After finishing the Rig and the stuff in the old world, we've moved back to the Black Sea and are now polishing up some of the areas and wrapping up quests and the like. You can see some of the interesting areas in the video below as you relax to the excellent atmospheric music of Josh Culler.
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We've also started working on the savage natives and their areas, so expect to see some of that in the next dev log.
That's all - just a short update to let you guys know that the development is going more or less according to plan and that you guys should stay tuned for more dev logs in the coming months.
Let us know how you liked the areas showcased in the video.
In order to wrap up the geographical consistency of the base game, we had to create a number of water maps that connect SGS, Junkyard, Core City, Camp Hathor, and the Black Sea. In the expansion the player will be able to traverse and explore these maps with his jet ski, but he won't be the only one as a number of factions also utilize these waters, such as Protectorate, Black Eels, and Black Sea pirates. Also encounters with random sea bandits are not uncommon.
The most powerful naval faction in the South Underrail is, of course, the Black Eels. Their naval platform The Rig is perfectly positioned to facilitate the trade between different stations as well as their own scrap exporting business. The Rig is also used to control the central body of water of the Lower Caves in order to fend off pirates. This place will be vital for pirate missions that the player will be able to take part in if he chooses to ally with the them in the expansion.
The Rig missions are not 100% complete yet, but will be soon. After that we'll be returning to the Black Sea to wrap up and polish off the maps we made so far and integrate them into the global map. And then we still have two more areas to develop - the villages of the savage natives and the final dungeon.
Let us know how you like the aesthetics of the new areas.
Underrail is releasing a major update for testing via the experimental branch according to the latest update.
Experimental Branch with Version 1.0.3.13
Thursday, 07 December 2017 13:21
Hi guys, we are releasing a new major update of the base game on the experimental branch. If everything goes as planned, we'll be releasing it to the main branch as well soon.
To play experimental branch on Steam, you right click the game in your library and go to "Betas" tab. To do so on GOG, you select the game and choose More->Settings. Make sure you don't override all your live version saves just in case something goes horribly wrong.
We have new creatures, items and feats.
[...]
Mechanics
Added the global map
Added DOMINATING difficulty, mechanically it inherits the modifications of hard difficulty and also increased NPC health by 50% and skill levels by 30%.
Changed the way hit change display handles oscillating lighting or otherwise dynamic lighting. This also should fix some anomalies like the hit chances changing when saving/loading or transitioning.
Removed cooldown for arming traps
Removed cooldowns from lockpicking and hacking
Reduced the time it takes for the game to yield the control back to the combatant after he kills the target; it doesn't wait for scrolling text and sounds to end now
Hostilities will now instantly be triggered when you've been detected lockpicking (instead of at the end of the action)
Increased the damage of chemical pistols by 50% (will be applied retroactively on exisiting items)
Ground fire will now remove cryogas
Starting pickpocketing (opening the pickpocketing window) will now require a certain amount of pickpocketing skill depending on the target's detection so not every character can inspect any NPC's inventory (without killing them!)
Targets will no longer be able to block (in regular way) if stunned, incapacitated or frozen
You can now unload chemical pistols
As long as you haven't been fully detected by a NPC, that NPC's detection will be reduced back to zero when you get back into an area where you've been sneaking
Uncanny Dodge will no longer work while you're stunned or incapacitated in some way
Dirty Kick will now be subject to Uncanny Dodge and other special defense mechanisms
You can now root turrets (which makes them susceptible to acidic entanglement)
On normal difficulty and above, transitioning between areas (red transitions) will now cost action points
Improved NPC pathfinding slightly
Primary non-mechanical damage (not caused by on-hit effect) on melee weapons will now scale with weapon skill (like the bio damage on The Claw), but will no longer scale with strength
On hard difficulty EMP will drain energy (and subsequently deal damage to the holder) from all items in the inventory (not just equipped ones)
Reduced the ranged weapon precision reduction from low light slightly
Antidote will now randomly choose the order of poison removal, instead of going in the order they were applied
Tweaks
Turn-based mode will no longer automatically end at the end of the turn if there are incapacitated enemies near
Reduced the alpha on energy shields
Removed the movement animation reseting when rapidly clicking (there's still a very slight stutter if you click very fast, though)
You cannot change armor suit while in stealth or while stealth is on cooldown on hard difficulty or above
Turrets will now drop aggro faster
Getting additional burning damage will reset the burning debuff remaining time
While our development is mostly focused on the expansion there are a couple of issues that we wanted to address before its release as we think that they will greatly influence the experience of playing the DLC as well as the base game.
First of these is the global map. This was a contested issue since the alpha versions and is probably the most frequent complaint we get from the people that have a positive view of the game as a whole. Some people may be wondering if the global map was something that was originally planned for the game and, truth to be told, I don't really remember (original plans for the game were laid almost 10 years ago now), but knowing myself I would probably implement one if I had the (time) resources that I have now. Back when I was at it alone I had to cut corners in both content and feature departments, and map is a bit of both really. Later, when the game has grown monstrously in size, even though I then had the time to add new features, a good amount of geographical inconsistencies made sure that there was no quick and easy way to produce a quality map, but instead some major rearragements were going to have to be made.
Hi guys. I did some changes regarding veteran levels which I originally introduced back in October.
First of all, player will continue to receive the normal amount of skill points when leveling up even on veteran levels now. Also, dervied stats such as health, detection and such will scale normally on veteran levels as well. However, players will also gain a feat every even level instead of every level when leveling on veteran levels. So basically everything is going to work as with normal levels with the exception of the feat pool being expanded with veteran feats once you hit veteran levels.
Allowing of the further skill scaling beyond the 25th level, however, requires us to provide some use for such high skill levels, particularly in crafting. To address this, the end-game areas and stores will have some of its loot/stock scaled up if the Expedition DLC is installed, particularly when it comes to crafting components. In the future, we also intend to address the problem of other non-combat skill scaling (such as social skills and hacking/lockpicking) by adding high level encounters/opportunities, so while currently it might not make sense to max out these skills, in the future it will have benefits.
However, the second, and more important change, is that on veteran levels you'll also get three specialization points.
You use these specialization points to further improve your non-veteran feats, often across specific dimension, as demonstrated in the GIF above. Your investment of points in any given specialization cannot exceed your veteran level (or the maximum allowed points for that specialization).
That's it for now. Let us know how you like these changes.
The latest development update for Underrail: Expedition shows off some gameplay. Spoiler Warning.
Hi guys.
Just wanted to let you all know that, even though we've been quiet, we're working hard on getting all the content for the expansion done, now that all the new mechanics have been implemented. The good news is that the the bulk of the main quest, including all the heavy scripting, c&c, etc, is complete and functioning (for the most part, it needs further testing, of course).
For those who just can't wait to get to explore the Black Sea themselves, here's a short video from the recent internal testing that we've done (this is NOT a trailer). It does contain some spoilers, though we tried to censor the important stuff, so be warned.
According to a review on Rock Paper Shotgun, the reviewer wanted to like Underrail, but really didn't.
I’ve played for dozens of hours according to in-game timers (which don’t account for time lost to undone dead ends and the many, many reloads), and I still have very little idea what the plot is. I’m a new person joining a settlement, presumably for reasons. I’m taken to a private room and… kind of blunder aimlessly about the place until I meet the right NPC, then do a few chores because he says so. At no point is there any way to find out much about the world, its past, the people in it, what to expect from the game, or to care in the slightest about anything at all. Oh, several characters can be interrogated about three or four factions who… exist. Except that they don’t really, so help me out here, game! Have them do something. Have a representative in the starter town! Have polarised arguments about them in the canteen. Don’t just rattle off their boring names and some lukewarm politics.
Underrail is set to get jet skis with the expansion content according to the latest development update.
Since the expansion takes place on Black Sea, naturally you will need a way to travel between all the small islands, bays and between far shores. You will be able to do this on a dozen of different jet skis, ranging from super light racing jet skis to mini-destroyers, which you can further customize under the hood by installing better engines, batteries and suspension systems. The models themselves differ way by the combat cover, durability, stability, speed, damage resistances, as well number of and maximum size of a parts you can install into them; some vehicles can have multiple engines and/or batteries. Also, some jet skis will have special attacks or abilities.
Once you get to the Black Sea it won't take long for you to get a hold of the most basic "junk jet", but to get the quality stuff, both in terms of the jet ski model and the parts, you'll have to spend a fair amount of charons at a specialized shop in Core City. You'll also have to decide what are the most important characteristics of jet ski for you, as no one model will be best at everything.
While riding a jet ski you'll be able to use most of your weapons, abilites and utilities. The most notable exceptions are sledgehammers and sniper rifles, which are not available while driving. Also, short range melee weapons (fist weapons and knives) and unarmed attacks, though still performable, will suffer significant penalties. When an attack is aimed at you, it has a chance of hitting the jet ski instead (or in case of AoE attacks, a percentage of the damage hits the vehicle), depending on the cover it provides, in which case the damage is tested against its resistences and the amount that penetrates those is deducted from the vehicle's durability. If the durability reaches zero, the vehicle is destroyed and you die (you never learned to swim).
That's it for now, guys. Let us know how all this sounds and I hope you're looking forward to some naval battles with pirates and worse things.
Hi guys. In the past few months we've been working (and we're still working) on a couple of major features for the expansion, but we didn't want to show any of them before they were ready. First of these that are now done are the new weapons, so without further ado I give you the three new weapon types - the spear, the machete and the shotgun.
The choice of spear and machete as new weapons was mostly thematic (you will learn why in some later dev log), but these weapons will also have their own place in the melee arsenal. Spears are meant to be versatile offensive and defensive weapons, while machetes are meant to be high risk-high reward weapons that will rely on the user keeping up the offensive. More on the exact mechanics of this will be revealed later when I get to implementing their specific feats. There are two types of machetes that differ slight in critical chance/damage stats.
Underrail is a fantastic game that stands proud as both a spiritual successor to the original Fallout and as a legitimately great game in its own right. Whilst Underrail does have its areas of contention (Deep Caverns, backtracking, walking speed, ability cooldowns) Styg has demonstrated through recent updates that he does understand and appreciate at least some of the issues people have with Underrail and is committed to making it as great a game as he can. Despite the struggle that is the Deep Caverns the rest of the game is more than worth playing and only slightly detracts from the whole experience.
With the first expansion for Underrail coming soon there is no doubt in my mind that Stygian Software will continue to deliver glorious incline for years to come.
Dev Log #50: Experimental Branch with Version 1.0.2.2
Hi guys, soon we'll be ready to release a new update for the game. For those who wish to help us test it, we've set up "Experimental" branches on Steam and GOG Galaxy.
To play experimental branch on Steam, you right click the game in your library and go to "Betas" tab. To do so on GOG, you select the game and choose More->Settings. Make sure you don't override all your live version saves just in case something goes horribly wrong.
Here are the patch notes:
Feats
AP reduction from Gunslinger feat will now properly affect only firearms
Added feats: Bowyer (crossbow crafting)
Ripper feat will now properly work with serrated knives
Visuals
Added a new visual model for siphoner, ancient rathound, and super steel armor
Telekinetic proxies and electrokinetic imprints will now be visible behind walls
Interface
Added tooltips for empty gear slots
Forcing the vent with crowbar will now be done through Quick Invoker (once the crowbar is equipped, you'll get the ability there)
Changed the "Focused" tooltip to be gender neutral (tested for all 99 genders)
Mechanics
Cats nerfed
Dreadnoughts buffed
When a character that has nightvision turned on gets flashbanged, they will also be dazed for 5 turns
Some of the merchants now have additional mercantile checks which (if passed) will expand that merchant's store inventory
Items
Borer Gizzard renamed to Metaworm Gizzard and is now also dropped by Latchers
Most special bullets now also require TNT to craft
Added blueprints for standard, W2C and JHP bullets
Mechanical bolt blueprint renamed to Serrated bolt blueprint
EMP mine case now counts as electronic component
Added a couple more instances of Black Eye, Loaded Dice, Train Driver Manual and Train Log oddities
Increased the drop chance of Quad Damage Module oddity
Changed the Electronic Idol oddity to provide 3 xp for a max of 1 study as it should have been
Bug fixes
Generated metal armors enhancements will have quality other than 1 now
Quick load will now work during enemy's turn
Closing interface help window by right clicking will no longer disable keyboard commands
Fixed the dialog window option highlighting when there's 10 or more dialog options
Fixed the cut-off tooltips on smaller resolutions with small font size (on most tooltips; there still might be some that just have too many lines)
Fixed the bug that caused caltrops to drain action points immediately instead of movement points first
Fixed the minor glitches with trap detection calculations
Crawlers and Faceless Gaunts will no longer land on occupied tiles when escaping from sight
Telekinetic Proxy now properly removes Premeditation when it makes use of it
Fixed the bug that caused Dreadnought to keep moving if you attempted to dismount during movement
Fixed the bug that caused the player to receive experience when an NPC was killed by a doppelganger that someone else created
Expose Weakness will now properly count as a melee attack (it will be affected by Uncanny dodge for example)
Pyrokinetic Stream and Pyrokinesis should now always properly invoke "heating effect"
Heating effects should now properly remove Cryo-shield
Cooling effects should now properly remove Exothermic aura
Quests/Maps
Fixed a certain zoner appearing later in the game in some cases even if Rista's quest concerning him hasn't been completed
Fixed positioning problems during the cutscene in which you lead Edgar to RK's lair that might occur when the player has increased his movement speed beyond a certain point
Fixed the missing train quest bandits not becoming hostile if the player fails a certain skill check
Fixed killing the old man in GMS crashing the game after the situation has been dealt with
Fixed a bug which caused a transition error when entering the zone where Duff is supposed to spawn
Fixed being able to give a certain man a certain helmet more than once and receive more than one reward
Fixed a few unreachable dialog branches (Old Jonas, Leo and one notable heavily armored commander)
Fixed some late game Tchortists not recognizing that you are wearing a certain type of robe
Fixed a dialog bug which prevented the players from telling the Rejects how to escape
Fixed some items disappearing from Fraser's store inventory after certain events take place
Fixed a few bugs with the end game slides
Fixed issues with one of the tunnelers in DC after it has been despawned
Fixed being able to kill the Gauntlet runners before the event without anyone caring
It is no longer possible to pay 1 charon to Silas for Grover's debt instead of 100 charons
Arke cameras and turrets will now properly go offline after being shut down at the main console
Edgar's quests will now properly fail if you kill him
The player will no longer be able to start a civil war in Core City by fighting with the burglar in the house opposite to the Praetorian Security headquarters
Added another option to acquire ICPD from Duff, plus some more flavor if you handle the situation in a certain way
Added another way to capture hoppers for Bret
Added another way to obtain Elwood's keycard
Did some tweaks to the main quest in Foundry, added more dialog options and removed some of the backtracking; also, the miners will now return to the mine at the end of the quest
Gaining access to Foundry prison security room will also remove protection from the security console there; added another hacking option as well
Changed so that failing to intimidate Rubin will no longer make him not want to speak to you anymore
Hathorians will occupy the area north of the camp after it has been cleared
SGS soldiers and workers will now occupy the outposts after the player has cleared them
A certain faction in DC will now be handing out better ammo than previously
Fixed a faulty transition in one of the zones beneath the Mushroom Forest
Fixed GMS jammed ventilation shaft being incorrectly positioned; also made some minor changes to the vent layout to accommodate this
The usual minor stuff (map/dialog/quest tweaks and fixes)
Report any bugs you find on the forums and make sure you specify which version you're playing.
Enjoy and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!
Developer Styg explains a psionic school called "Temporal Manipulation" for his upcoming Underrail expansion Expedition:
Temporal Manipulation
Hi guys,
In the expansion, we'll be adding a new psionic school called “Temporal Manipulation”, which will primarily feature delayed damage and buffing/debuffing abilities.
Underrail - Temporal Manipulation
This psi discipline will, probably more than any other, will function well as a support skill that can be incorporated into other builds, rather than a primary skill around which a build is made, though I have no doubt that some of you will find a way to prove me wrong.
Here are the abilities:
Temporal Distortion - Places a debuff on the target that lasts 1 turn and deals mechanical and energy damage when it expires. In the case the target is already affected by temporal distortion, its duration will be increased by 1 turn and damage by 25% and the newly applied temporal distortion will have the same duration and damage bonus. Damage dealt by this ability ignores shield and 50% of damage resistance and threshold. This ability cannot critically hit.
Psycho-temporal Dilation – Reduces target's action points by 15 and movement points by 50. Lasts 2 turns.
Limited Temporal Increment – Reduces all remaining cooldowns by 1 turn.
Entropic Recurrence – Repeats the percentage of the last unit of damage taken by the target over 3 turns. This damage ignores shields and resistances. In cases when the original damage was very slight, the recurrence may actually empower it.
Psycho-temporal Contraction – Increases target's action points by 15 and movement points by 30. Lasts 2 turns.
Temporary Rewind – Reverses the last damage done to the target, up to certain amount depending on the skill level. After two turns this health is lost and this may cause the target to die.
Precognition – While this ability is active, your chance to dodge and evade attacks is increased by certain percentage depending on skill level (additively). Drains 25 psi points every turn.
Stasis – Places the target in stasis for 2 turns, making it immune to all damage and most disabling effects, but also preventing it from acting. While in stasis, the target's status effects will not progress (except the stasis one), but the cooldowns will.
That's about it. Let me know how you guys like the new psi school.
This development update for Underrail Expeditions focuses on some of the new mechanics which center around Veteran feats.
Hey guys, it's time to start revealing some concrete info on the expansion. Some new game mechanics stuff, to be precise.
Underrail - Veteran Feats
First, let's talk about leveling. Once your character levels past level 25, they become a "veteran" character. To gain veteran levels, a character will require significantly more experience (both oddity and classical) than for regular levels.
Veteran characters no longer receive base ability or skill points during leveling and their derived stats such as health, detection and so on do not scale with levels anymore. However, they do get to pick a feat every level and, in addition to regular feats, they can also pick from the veteran feat pool.
Veteran feats, at least in this expansion, tend to be more general in nature, but they can also give you some important bonuses that you cannot otherwise obtain. Here are some examples (in addition to the one on the screenshot):
Fight Response - When starting a turn below 25% of your maximum health, your action points are increased by 10.
Improved Dodging - Increases the chance you'll dodge a melee attack by 5% (additive).
Tempered: Acid/Cold/Electricity/Heat - Reduces all X (depending on feat) damage taken by 30%.
Major Supplier - Increases the amount of money the merchants are willing to use when trading with you by 2% per mercantile skill.
Keep in mind that these feats might be altered, pending testing.
The reason I decided to prevent certain aspects of character from scaling beyond level 25 is to avoid having the character outscale the content at his current main storyline progression just by raw character power. Because we'll be expanding the game horizontally in this expansion (and probably in the future) we need to take special care to still provide adequate challenge to the player while also allowing them to improve some aspects of their character.
It's been almost eight months since the last formal dev log. That doesn't mean we haven't been busy working on new stuff, however, and now at long last we can announce the first Underrail expansion - "Expedition".
In Expedition you’ll be able to take a break from the usual metro-crawling to take a boat to the infamous Black Sea, a massive underground body of water.
There, among the old and mysterious ruins of an age long past, you’ll face the vicious fauna, hostile natives, cunning pirates, and something far more sinister than all of those.
Your voyage through vastness of the Black Sea will shed new light on the history of the world of Underrail and the forces that shaped it.
Expedition will feature the following:
A brand new story line that becomes available during the mid-game
Over a 100 new areas to explore of various types – shores and islands of the Black Sea, mysterious underground facilities, pirate strongholds, and more
New human factions, as well as wild creatures to combat
New items and crafting recipes
New skills and feats
Leveling past level 25 with a special pool of feats to choose from
Over time we'll be revealing more details through the dev log, so expect those to once again flow regularly as they did before the game's release.
We expect to release the expansion during the first half of 2017 as a paid DLC.
Noise emission from weapons should work properly now (previously it only worked for non-weapon sources such as grenades, psi abilities, etc)
Some AI improvements on normal and hard difficulties
Insulated and galvanic foam padding no longer add to stealth
Fixed the bug that caused some of the on-hit effect to proc off even when attacks were resisted in full
Handled the bug that caused certain special attacks and on-hit effects to remove fire effects from the target
Games that are saved after this patch will also display the difficulty settings
Pneumatic hammer and pneumatic reloader are now considered pneumatic components for the purpose of trading
Supersoldier drug will no properly trigger the cooldown
Healing effectiveness bonuses will no longer apply twice when using health hypos; also added healing effectiveness stat to the combat stats window
Special attack damage bonus added to the combat stats window
Compacted the feat list somewhat and added an option to filter it by entering text that is then matched against the feat's name, description and requirements
Gunslinger feat now reduces firearm pistol usage ap cost by 3 (up from 2) and also increases initiative by 7
Paranoia now also increases initiative by 5
Taste for Blood no longer reduces AP cost
Combo now has 20% chance to stun (down from 100%)
Fatal Throw now only restores action points once per turn
Lightning punches now requires armor penalty to be below 20% (up from 25%)
Light weapon AP cost reduction changed to 3% (down from 4%) for each dexterity point above 5
High Explosive grenades and mines now ignore 40% of damage resistance and threshold
Riot gear shield base block chance changed to 35% (up from 30%) and block amount increased (base multiplier changed from 1.5 to 2.25) (not retroactive)
Extra unarmed damage from boots will now also work with fist weapons
Fixed the bug that caused temporary lock up in certain areas with certain elevators
Fixed the bug that caused outlines to be visible beyond the camera view
Added VSync toggle option to video settings
Fixed Minister Percival sometimes not appearing at the Institute
You can now place small animals inside the organic processor in DC
The wardrobes in Mediant Samuel's and Principal Investigator Georgis' offices can now be accessed properly
Fixed the Black Eels becoming hostile to the player after the SRO assault mission (happened if the player asked for Protectorate help during the Eels' final quest)
Fixed unresponsive ladder in one of Upper Underrail's hidden passages
Expanded the Renegade quest for the Underrail Protectorate
Added one more way to sneak in the cybernetic spawn into the Protectorate embassy
Added another way to kidnap a certain woman
Did a few Rail Crossing invasion quest tweaks and added additional dialog options
Added another way to learn about a certain man and his gang
Fixed a certain someone not waiting for you at the beginning of DC in some cases
Removed some of the unnecessary backtracking during the missing train quest; also added a few more options for handling the quest
A Protectorate guard will occasionally remind the player to holster his weapons if using the SRO elevator to reach the embassy
Some tweaks to the quest for the Faceless near Foundry
Nerfed the Coretech warehouse mercenaries in the defense mission
Fixed old hostage in GMS sometimes blocking the vent in the room with the ladder
Numerous minor tweaks and fixes (maps, dialogs etc.)
Version 1.0.1.9
Fixed the bug that caused the characters to be able to cast psi abilities even if they lack psi points
Fixed the bug that put the player in combat when environmental effects that they caused hurt NPCs in controlled areas, even though the player is hidden
Forgottenlor played quite a bit of Underrail and penned down a review of the game for RPGWatch and he liked what he played.
Combat in Underrail is well done. I enjoyed the combat for the length of my play through and there are many reasons for this. First there is the very straightforward (turn based) action point system. Characters have 50 action points to fight or move with, though a high agility can give a character bonus move only points. Each weapon has an action point cost. High action point weapons like a high caliber pistol or sniper rifle can only fire once a round, but are excellent for piercing armour and force fields, and have devastating critical hits. On the other hand, against an unarmored opponent, a submachine gun that can fire three times a round is probably the better choice. Underrail has a huge arsenal, and picking the right weapon for the right fight can be of critical importance.
It is also important to note that after the first few hours of gameplay, battles with multiple opponents are nearly unavoidable. You will lose these battles if you stick to standard attacks, because your opponents often have high powered consumables and are nearly as skilled as you. Facing three or more opponents requires some forethought.
The third and final interview with Styg creator of Underrail.
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Greetings, Matt Rats! I'm back this week with the third and final installment of my interview with Underrail developer Styg and his graphics artist, Mario.
@Eurogamer they discuss the Underrail XP system and how it rewards thoroughness.
I'm a big fan of role playing games, be they digital or pen and paper. Occasionally, however, I develop a profound sense of torpor - RPG fatigue if you will - that's invariably brought about by the same thing: XP grinding.
While character development is one of the things that make RPGs so exciting, the endless grind for seemingly arbitrary parcels of experience points does get tiring. More than once I've found myself doing a quest in an RPG not out of genuine interest, but so I can watch a number that doesn't make me happy flash up on the screen for a moment. Which is exactly why I found Underrail so refreshing.
Underrail, an isometric RPG that launched late last year, has an XP system based around oddities. Oddities are strange artefacts that can be found in the world and on certain enemies. Aside from completing quests, they're the only way to gain experience; miss them, miss out. In their frequently grisly nature (rathound ear, anyone?) they take on an eldritch quality that helps enhance the subterranean world of Underrail. They also make it less about you and your nifty skillset, mr, mrs or ms protagonist, and more about the game world itself.
Have a look in the video below. Sorry for being rubbish at turn-based combat.
In Matt Chat #322 we have an interview with the creator of Underrail.
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Hi, Matt Chatters! The first episode of 2016 features an interview with Styg of Stygian Software, the mastermind behind Underrail! In this segment, we chat about Styg's background and how he likes his game being compared to Fallout!
Broken Joysticks gives us a first look at Underrail, the isometric Fallout-esque RPG that's got everyone talking.
Where do I start with Underrail?
No, really, where do i start? not just the review, but in the game itself? At first the game seems very streamlined, but I found myself lost even in the initial quest, even if it was largely due to my own mistakes. I first went into the railway system, finding death at every turn, wasting a full five hours before encountering the correct path back, where I started at the elevator, heading back in, to find the Cave system I was intended to explore.
The main attraction of this game is it hearkens back to the Classic Fallout 1 and 2 system of a top down RPG and isometric in nature. Underrail’s graphics however suffer in this department, they are very limited by the media, and very underpolished in presentation. the fog of war is very stark in contrast to the visuals, choosing to just cut off the pixels, with no blending or fading into darkness. There’s a rather deep stat system, alongside a unique system called “Feats” and it is rather analogous to the perks system present in fallout games. The parallels do not end there.
Dejan Radisic first began development of UnderRail, then known as Timelapse Vertigo, almost seven years ago. Originally a solo effort, and then later conducted by Radisic and his team at Stygian Software, the game proceeded apace, until December 18th, 2015 when UnderRail exited its Early Access period into a full release state.
[...]
Ultimately, UnderRail is a loving tribute act to the role-playing games of yesteryear, and in preserving those old forms and mechanics, also recaptures some of their soul and the unique sense of possibility afforded by those old, arcane systems. But it also falters when it comes to replicating the narrative and atmospheric qualities that cemented those old games as lasting classics in many players' minds.
If what you miss most about games like Fallout is the act of rolling your character, exploring a space from that particular camera angle, allocating your AP in combat, or tweaking a build after several runs' worth of trial and error, you'll be in good hands with UnderRail. Otherwise, it may be more productive to simply play the older games again.
UnderRail, the long-awaited isometric post-apocalyptic RPG, has been released.
Underrail is an old school turn-based isometric indie role playing game that focuses on exploration and combat.
The game is set in a distant future, when the life on the Earth’s surface has long since been made impossible and the remnants of humanity now dwell in the Underrail, a vast system of metro station-states that, it seems, are the last bastions of a fading race.
The player takes control of one of the denizens of such a station-state whose life is about to become all that much more interesting and dangerous, as our protagonist is caught midst the conflicting factions of the Underrail as the violently struggle to survive in the harsh underground environment.
Styg announced: Underrail will be available on GOG, GamersGate and Steam on December 21:
Closed Beta Testing; Release Date
Hi guys. It is my pleasure to announce that the game has now entered beta stage and will be released in full on December 21st 2015. As before it will be available on Steam and GamersGate, but now also on GOG.com.
In the following two weeks we will be doing closed beta testing to make sure the game has as few bugs as possible on release.
Also a little heads-up: at some point between now and full release the game's price will be increased from its early access/alpha price to its full price. Those of you who have followed us since the early days know well that the game has since grown in scope and quality far beyond that of the initial release.
Thank you all for being patient with us throughout the years, the long wait is now at an end.
Hey guys, while the rest of the team is working on wrapping up the remaining content (a few obligatory teaser screenshot included below), I took the time to work on some of the last game mechanic stuff to be implemented.
Most importantly, I implemented a noise system so the player will now have to consider more than just visual perception when handling a hostile area. This system works in a simple manner - certain actions, mostly relate to combat, such as firing weapons, grenade explosions, etc now emit a certain level of noise that travels through the map, with walls and other obstacles dampening their propagation (with certain thick walls doing so drastically). This will cause certain weapons - crossbows, knives and silenced pistols (and to lesser extent sledgehammers), will now have an edge over other weapon types when doing a stealth assassination.
In addition to this, a lot of NPCs will now holler for help on their turn if they are not stunned or incapacitated, so it's important to dispose of them quickly and silently if you want to avoid fighting the whole camp.
These changes will undoubtedly make some encounters more difficult so we will go through most problematic of them to make sure they are not too ridiculous. [...]
Underrail - Housing, New Psi and Deep Cavern Preview
by Hiddenx, Saturday - May 30, 2015 11:38
In his developer blog and here at the Watch Styg informed us about the latest developments for Underrail:
Hey guys, we've been a bit quiet lately, but that's only because we've been keeping our heads down and working hard on the last chunk of content for the game - the Deep Caverns. There's still a lot to do before we can show it in its full glory, but here's a little teaser screenshot below.
Also, we implemented player housing. Players will now get an old ruined apartment in Core City which they can fix up and furnish to their liking. Most of the stuff you can get for the house is just for show, but there is some useful equipment as well.
(...)
That's all for now folks. We still have work ahead of us with new content, some gameplay balancing and tweaking, and then finally polishing the game, especially the old areas. I know some of you are really impatient to get your hands on the final release, but please don't ask me for the release date. I don't know and I don't even particularly care at this point. All I can say is it will be out this year definitively! One thing that we do know is exactly what needs to be done, by each of us in the team, for the game to be all it's meant to be at the release, and every day we hammer away at it. So stay patient, dudes.
We'll drop the next dev log when we have more of Deep Caverns to show.
Hey guys, the last Early Access/alpha version is here. It's available on Steam now and, as before, it will be available on other platforms as soon as we stabilize it. We are proud to present to you the Institute of Tchort in all its glory, the final urban area of the game. If you want to know more about what's left on our development roadmap, check out the previous dev log.
One major mechanical change I made since the last update is concerning the psi pool. Instead of functioning like a "mana" resource, the psi was changed to more of pre-alpha state when it functioned like an "energy" resource. Every character with Psi Empathy feat now has 100 psi points and regenerates 20 points per turn (or per 5 seconds in real time). Psi boosters now instantly restore 75 psi.
These changes were done for two reasons which tie into the same problem. One - they were meant to make the psi cost more relevant when choosing what to invoke. The cost of the psi abilities have been re-balanced accordingly - those abilities that were meant to be used as primary attacks, such as neural overload, cryokinesis and electrokinesis, have a low cost and can be spammed without running out of psi. However, those high impact abilities, such as bilocation and cryostasis can run you out of psi quickly.
The second reason, which is related to the first one, is to curb the multi-disciplined psi build. As it stands in the release version, builds that go for full psi can generally invest into all three schools of psi without much trouble because they all rely on the same base stat and also share a number of beneficial feats. This grants the player access to a large amount of crowd-control and AoE abilities that they can invoke in short 1-2 turn burst which makes most encounters a breeze. Now, however, the limited psi pool will keep that in check. You will still be able to spec in all the schools if you wish, but you won't be able to bring down the full power of all of them at the same time.
Another happy consequence of this change is that the psi builds will have easier time in early game because they won't have to worry about psi boosters as much. Now keep in mind that the numbers stated above are not set in stone. We haven't still done any extensive testing of this change so tweaks are likely to happen. Also, I'll probably introduce a couple of feats in the future that will allow the player to slightly expand the psi pool or increase the psi regeneration.
In other news, I've been working on various things related to crafting. Most of the planned components have been added to the standard blueprints. While I'll be adding more components before the game is released as well as some utility and consumable blueprints, there are no plans to add more general blueprints, such as those for a new type of weapon or armor. Keep in in mind that all the crafting stuff added here is crafting-only; that is - it does not appear in randomly generated loot. Also, most of these changes are not retroactive, so already obtained items in running games will be mostly unchanged.
A new version (0.1.13.0) for Underrail is now available on Steam and is coming on other platforms soon.
In this update we added new factions with their optional questlines, namely - Free Drones, Protectorate and the super secret one. We added most of the remaining areas that we planned for the game, which include Upper Underrail and Lower Underrail passages, so speaking geographically most of the game is complete. If you want the full list of what's new, check out the previous two dev logs before reading further.
One thing to note, however, is that if you want to experience the new questlines you'll probably have to start a new game, unfortunately, since we had to make some changes to existing areas and quests in order to fit them in.
And on what's next:
Now I want to talk a bit about the future development plans. I won't be giving you a release date, though I can safely say it won't be this year as I initially hoped. However, know that the end is in sight.
When it comes to mechanical stuff, there are still stuff like components, items, feats, abilities, etc to be added. However, there are currently no plans to add any more major mechanics (gas and fire should be the last). From the content side there are two parts of the main quest left that, as it happens, take part in two locations that are yet to be added - Institute of Tchort and Deep Caverns.
Firstly, I hired an artist to do the portraits. There's lots of them to be drawn so don't expect them all to be finished in the next update. In the screenshot above you can see the portraits are lit in the same manner as the characters on the map. I find that this adds to the atmosphere, but this can be disabled in the options for those who disagree. Players can also make their own custom portraits and the game will offer them on character creation if they have been placed in the appropriate folder and are of appropriate format.
Secondly, it was time to expand the musical repertoire. With only four tracks covering the numerous and diverse locations of Underrail, the music tended to get quite repetitive. As with the portraits, don't expect us to be able to cover the entire game with new music immediately.
by Couchpotato, Wednesday - October 22, 2014 05:40
Hiddenx notified me of a new preview for Underrail has been posted on the Codex.
As I wrote at the beginning of this preview, Underrail is the second coming of the incline. The only reasonable conclusion to draw here is that you should either play the game now, or look forward to playing it later when it's officially released. Although the current version offers an enormous amount of content, is very stable, and doesn't feel "unfinished" (although it is, as you'll discover once you reach higher levels), it isn't quite done, so you may prefer to wait.
Having said that, the game isn't without its flaws. As JarkFrank mentioned in his preview, there are a lot of typos, and boy, there really are a lot of them. They're present in skill/item descriptions as well as dialog. In addition, and this is my personal opinion, some of the NPC dialog is a bit awkward or rushed and should be copyedited and cleaned up. This is a very manageable flaw (though no small task) that could turn into a big one if allowed into the final release.
Also, the game is a little bit (really just a scosche) light on NPC dialog and C&C at the moment, though there is a good bit of dialog and C&C. Of course, the game's not finished, so it's hard to make a solid judgement, especially on the C&C front
Hey guys, we took a couple weeks off in August/September to recharge our batteries, but we're back now and we're kicking it into high gear. While we're also working on new areas and quests (we'll get to that in some future dev log), I'm taking this time to finally implement last of the game mechanics (not quite done yet). In this case that would be fire and gas.
You will now be able to create fire bombs (such as Molotov cocktail) that set character, creatures and the ground on fire as well. The burning ground is very dangerous as it deals both flat and -percentage of max health- damage so you cannot ignore it even on high levels. The amount of damage dealt depends on the intensity of the flames (which depends on the power of the fire bomb, but can also stack if you throw multiple bombs).
You'll now also be able to craft gas grenades. The only type of gas grenade at the moment is "Toxic Gas Grenade" which deals flat bio damage. The damage dealt depends on the density of the gas (it's more dense at the source). While toxic gas doesn't deal damage quickly, the grenade does last for a long time and also bio resistance is currently not present on standard combat armors and if introduced later it will not be in generous amounts. Specialized equipment to deal with this and more powerful bio-hazzards will be added in the future. Also, players will encounter permanent sources of toxic gas in certain places (such as the one on the screenshot).
* * * * *
In other news, I've taken the time to do some UI improvements. This is probably the definitive list of the UI changes as I have tons of other stuff to get done before we release the game so I hope I answered most of your complaints/suggestions:
Added larger font options for everything (object labels, tooltips, quest notes, pop-up dialogs, combat log, etc)
Moves the combat log window slightly so it won't interrupt scrolling anymore
Added an option to auto-end turn when the player is out of MP and AP
Added more hotkeys (swap weapons, toggle shield, etc; might add more if necessary) and added keybinding options
Inspected containers that are empty are now marked as such
Increased the font in Combat Stats Overview window
Available component for a given blueprint will now be highlighted in the same manner as when trading
Double clicking (or ctrl clicking) a component will automatically transfer it to the crafting screen if appropriate blueprint is open
Clicking a crafting slot will automatically fill it with the first available component if empty, or clear it if full
ESC/ENTER and other intuitive hotkeys (such as Y/N) will now work inside confirmation boxes
While holding SHIFT player will not be able to issue move command as to prevent people from accidentally moving when they meant to shoot; keep in mind though that you'll still be able to issue a melee attack command that might require movement even when SHIFT is held
by Couchpotato, Tuesday - September 23, 2014 06:16
Styg has posted on twitter he is looking for freelancers to work on character/creature portraits for his Indie RPG game Underrail. Here are the short details of the post.
Looking to hire a freelancer to do in-game character/creature portraits. If interested, send your portfolio links at admin@underrail.com
by Couchpotato, Wednesday - September 17, 2014 09:36
As promised my next interview will be with Styg about his Indie RPG game Underrail. You now have the chance to submit any questions you want answered along with mine.
Underrail is an old school turn-based isometric indie role playing game that focuses on exploration and combat.
The game is set in a distant future, when the life on the Earth’s surface has long since been made impossible and the remnants of humanity now dwell in the Underrail, a vast system of metro station-states that, it seems, are the last bastions of a fading race.
The player takes control of one of the denizens of such a station-state whose life is about to become all that much more interesting and dangerous, as our protagonist is caught midst the conflicting factions of the Underrail as the violently struggle to survive in the harsh underground environment.
The deadline will be next week from now on the 24th.
A small site called Work Revolt has posted a new preview for Underrail, and calls it "A Tribute to Retro RPGs". I agree with the writer of the article myself.
UnderRail is a promising and well-structured indie game that pays homage to the retro-styled, tile-based, turn-based RPGS forgotten in today’s dominant AAA universe. In an interview with Indie Statik, Dejan identifies a unique difference UnderRail has from other indie games, in that “it doesn’t fit with this experimental/art whatever you want to call them games that so many indie news sites and communities are centered around. On the other hand, it doesn’t fit with the mainstream gaming press for obvious reasons.” Rather than follow along the experimental/artistic route that many indie developers tend to stick with, Dejan took a year to write his own game engine, write his own developer tools, and reanimated an aged video game genre with his own added twists and turns. I must say, the result is absolutely beautiful. Gamers will not be disappointed.
Hey guys, the new version is up. We're all very happy to have finally released this. It's the centerpiece of the game, our Athkatla/Sigil/Neverwinter. The main story still has places to go and we still plan on introducing more factions and sideplots, but expect the future updates to be a lot more focused and a lot less spacious.
We showed you bunch of screenshots already, so for this occassion we decided to make a short teaser trailer instead.
As before, we're releasing it to Steam first until we're sure it's stable and any potential major bugs that we missed during internal testing are fixed.
And because no dev log would be complete without a bullet list, here's an incomplete list of minor tweaks and stuff that were done since the last dev log:
Tweaks
EMP mine blueprint component requirements changed to be the same to that of the EMP grenade
Increased the amount of bear traps crafted when not applying poison to 10
Increased the amount of caltrops crafted when not applying poison to 10
Reduced the cost of metal plates and, by extension, some items that are crafted from them
Added an option to turn off automatic door opening
Removed the cooldown of Burst attack (don't know why it was there in the first place)
Bugs
Hopefully finally fixed the bug(s) that caused the factions to get all messed up after the Junkyard showdown event
Merchants will no longer roam while in bartering mode
Game will no longer crash when saving while mining
Chemical pistols have weight now
Action point counter fixed to work with extreme amounts of action points
Adrenaline shot will now always properly grant 20 bonus AP
Execute will no longer deal extra damage even if the target is not stunned/incapacitated
Enjoy the update folks, report bugs and let us know how you liked it. Cheers.
Styg has once again released a new update for Underrail this time with information on the biggest, and the most difficult section of the game Core City.
Hey guys. We've been quiet lately, but that's only because we've been working hard on the biggest and the most difficult section of the game, center of the game world, the metropolis that is Core City.
The Core City is the place of extremes. On one hand we have the oligarch families and their associates who live lives of luxury (or at least what can be considered such in the world of Underrail) while on the other hand the slums are filled with the poor that perish daily from hunger, disease and gang fighting.
The masters of Core City know how to keep the masses complacent though. What started as place for gangs to settle their disputes has grown to become the most popular form of entertainment in the city and the whole of Underrail. We're talking about the Arena, the Roman style field of combat where they pit men against various deadly creatures as well as gladiator against gladiator. All for the viewing pleasure of the numerous Arena fans. Watching people die violently is the favorite pastime for the oppressed masses of Core City.
Styg has once again released a new update for Underrail this time with information about new Meds, Psi, and Weapons. He also gives a sneak peak of the Core City.
Hey guys. The development of the next city-state in the world of Underrail is in full swing. Core City, the metropolis of the South Underrail, is the largest of the urban areas this game will feature.
I've added more firearms: one new pistol, one new SMG, two more assault rifles and two more sniper rifles. Also added two new crossbows. One model from each of the weapon categories (pistol, SMG, crossbow, etc) will be only available through crafting. This doesn't mean it will necessarily be stronger than the others, just different.
I've tweaked the base stats (damage spread, crit chance, crit bonus, precision, etc) of each of the firearm and crossbow models to diversify them further and make the choice between them more meaningful when crafting or purchasing. I won't be adding any more craftable firearms or crossbows to the game (though we will be adding unique ones), instead I'll be adding more weapon enhancements you'll be able to add to the mix when crafting your weapon of choice. These new enhancements will only be available through crafting, meaning, they won't appear (or will appear extremely rarely) on randomly generated gear.
Additionally, in the future I will be adding more character feats that will play on strengths of thoughtfully crafted and enhanced custom weapons. E.g. if you make a character build that gives you a number of ways to perform on-demand critical hits, you'll want to stack critical damage bonus and use a slow hard hitting weapon; while on the other hand if you have feats that give you extra on-hit effects (such as flat damage bonus) with critical hits and have high dexterity you'll want to use quick light weapons with high critical hit chance.
The new version is here. It took a bit longer to release than planned, but I think you guys will be pleased with the amount of content added. The game now features two more urban areas (one major and one minor) and lot more Lower Underrail and cave areas. We also reworked some of the starting quests to make the early difficulty curve smoother. For the full list of changes see the text below as well as two previous dev logs.
We will initially be releasing the new update only on Steam until the version stabilizes (we fix any glaring issues you guys find that we missed) after which we'll deploy it to other platforms as well. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this might cause to some, but it's just way too much overhead to deploy hotfixes on multiple platforms.
Aside from new areas and quests, we also added the following since the last dev log:
Item
Added new metal type for crafting
Added taser blueprint so electronics experts can protect themselves from hooligans and stalkers
Tweaks
Throwing nets made more useful now (no longer completely ineffective against opponents with decent or higher strength).
Carrier vests made more common as loot/merchandise.
Reduced the damage scaling of bilocation, neural overload, cryokinesis and electrokinesis. These abilities should be roughly the same power early game as they were before, but the idea is to prevent them from scaling out of control mid-late game. Also keep in mind that with all the buffs to psi-related feats they might end up even stronger than the last patch so further balancing might be required.
Completely most quests in oddity mode now grants some (usually small: 1-3) amount of XP. This should make completing quests feel more rewarding (especially those quests that don't involve exploration) without significantly affecting the XP balance in this mode.
Interface
Improved item management mechanics by adding sort button to containers and "transfer all" button to player inventory that can be used to transfer all the items to the currently opened container.
Bugs
Fixed the bug with certain secret monoliths not recognizing character's psi empathy
Increased the bear trap triggering radius so characters cannot pass in between two adjacent traps
We put a lot of effort in improving the narrative, quest hub area quality and game world cohesion, which I believe were up to this point the weaker aspects of the game. I hope you guys enjoy the update. Let us know what you think.
Hey guys. We're still working on the new update and it will be a while longer because some of the new areas require quite a bit of graphical work. Here's a little sneak peek at the new major urban area - the Foundry.
In addition to that we're also adding a new minor quest hub in the cave areas south of SGS and couple more quests in SGS and Rail Crossing. Also, we reworked the order in which you receive the early game quests to avoid sending people to GMS too early and added some early game oddities.
Styg has released a new update forUnderrail with information about Energy Shields. As usual you can ask him any questions on our forums.
Energy Shields
This has been long overdue but I finally got around to implementing energy shields. The main purpose of energy shields is to provide the player with kind of a health buffer, particularly against ranged opponents, so they can get into the fight and survive long enough to establish the control over the battlefield.
So the way the shields work is they block a certain amount of damage from each direct attack based on impact speed (very slow to very fast) rather than on damage type (mechanical, heat, etc). The amount of damage a shield can absorb in total is equal to its max energy times conversion rate. Shields also dissipate over time, so you won't want to keep them running unless they are needed to block damage. They cannot be recharged in combat.
The amount of damage blocked for each impact speed depends on the modulators used to craft/generate the shield emitter, but overall shield emitters are much more effective against higher impact speeds, so melee characters and, to a lesser extent crossbow users, will have an edge when fighting shielded enemies. Additionally, most types of melee weapons will ignore certain amount of shield (and some special attacks ignore it completely) so we can balance out their usefulness against the hard hitting sledgehammers - knives ignore 60% of energy shielding, fist weapons 80% and unarmed attacks 100%.
Hey guys, the new version has been released. It's available now on Steam, soon to be available on Desura, GamersGate and Groupees. For a preview of what's new you can check out this and past four dev logs.
You will now be able to travel a bit through Lower Underrail, either on foot or by train, and explore the town of Rail Crossing and the surrounding areas and face new types of enemies. The main story of the game starts in earnest with this patch, but I'm not going to spoil anything regarding that in this log :).
I also did a lot of polishing of existing game mechanics and added some new ones, as well as did a fair amount of economical re-balancing. After these couple days of internal testing I feel quite content where we're at now in that regard and while there surely be some more tweaking done in the future, I don't expect to do any major work on the existing mechanics in the future. With the future patches we will mostly be focusing on adding more content at a faster rate, which will as always include more areas, quests, enemies, items, feats, etc.
Styg has released a new update for Underrail with information about a new alternative experience system. You can ask him any questions on our forums.
Before we even begin I want to make it clear that, even though I consider the new system to be the "default" way to play the game, the old system is still available for those who prefer it. Upon starting a new game you will be able to choose which experience system you want to use and you can also choose between easy and normal difficulty. On easy difficulty player character will have twice the health and the healing consumables will heal for twice as much and have a lower cooldown.
With this change, I'm only trying to re-balance the experience economy and not anything else regarding the character progression. The experience economy concerns the way the player gain experience and how does that affect his character build and play-style.
Since the early development phase of the game I was set on the game utilizing this old-school linear level/skill progression system. I'm fond of this kind of system and I had a pretty good idea how I would handle various combat calculations within it. What I never liked about it, though, is how the games that implement it handle experience gains. The problem is similar to that presented in the previous dev log in regards to the trading economy. Most of experience you gain by completing quests and killing enemies. So in order to get as much XP as possible and progress through levels as fast as possible, the player is encouraged to resolve most situations by combat. With Underrail being a challenging game as it is, there exists a very real need for the player to maximize their power level at any stage of the game.
One of tweaks I did in the past of ease this up a bit was to increase the XP gain from quests and reduce the XP gain from kills. It did help a bit, but in a game which involves a lot of combat you'd really have to go to the extremes when shifting the XP gains (from kills to quests) before they actually change the nature of level progression. Otherwise, it will still be heavily based on XP from kills, you'll just slow the progression down. You could go to one extreme and say, let's only award XP for quest completion. This is one way to go about it, and certainly some games have utilized this or something similar. I personally I don't like, though. I find it a mostly boring and non-dynamic way to progress and it also encourages you to complete as many quests as possible, instead of just those you want. In my opinion, you should only have to do quests that progress the story (or alter the game world) in the way you want or have other in-game rewards you desire, and not because it's the only way to become more powerful. For me, playing RPGs is about making choices based on preferences. Anything that limits this is bad.
by Couchpotato, Wednesday - December 25, 2013 03:07
Styg has released a new update for Underrail talking about the changes he has implemented to the games economy.
The first big change I made is I limited the type and amount of goods merchants are willing to buy from you. Merchants will now only buy certain type of goods depending on what their store deals in and they will require only a certain amount of each, with exception of certain goods they will always be looking to buy (such as bullets for example). The type and amount of goods they require at the moment is randomly selected from that merchant's "market demand table" so to speak and it's reset every time the merchant restocks their inventory (typically every 90 minutes). So you will no longed be able to sell all the junk you hauled from your latest raid to the first merchant you see.
And speaking of hauling junk, I've also implemented item weight system. You'll get the progressively higher movement speed and movement point penalties the more you carry above your capacity and if you carry way too much you will actually get rooted into place. This is something I've put off implementing for quite some time because I wasn't sure it'll actually add any value to the game. I dislike these mechanics in most RPGs, especially the party-based ones because more often than not they only result in more inventory management chores without having (or needing to have) much impact on the game economy. But in certain games where exploring and scavenging are the main concepts of the game and where economy actually matters, and I believe Underrail to be such a game, I feel that liming the player inventory in some way (either through weight or space) is beneficial to the overall gameplay experience.
And finally, to go along with these changes, I've reduced the price multiplier when purchasing items. I'ts currently at 175% (down from 350%), but might change further by the time the update is ready depending on how it works out when I get the time to do a real playthrough. I've also reduced the item durability penalty to its cost and have increased the durability range of items looted from corpses (they won't be near broken all the time now).
A new development update for Underrail is available that shows off some new content for the next update that deals with combat mechanics.
The most significant change to the combat mechanics is the addition of initiative. Character's base initiative is determined like this: 5 + agility + dexterity. At the start of the combat, each combat participant randomly adds 1-15 points to the base initiative and the modified value is used when sorting the turn order. The only exception is when the player initiates combat manually (by pressing ENTER) or by simply attacking. In this case the player will always act first, but because of this, the AP cost of the opening attack/action will be deducted from his first turn. Additionally, this also applies to some other non-combat action performed just before entering combat, such as opening doors.
Also, player will no longer be able to quickly initiated combat manually when exiting a dialog to get a jump on their enemies, but I will be going through all situations that involve dialog initiated combat to make sure the player receives appropriate initiative bonus depending on the situation. That is, if you are having a dialog with someone who is already wary of you (such as GMS hostage situation) you do not get any initiative bonus (though you still "roll" standard initiative and may in fact play first), while in situation in which you surprise attack someone through a dialog you will get a substantial initiative bonus, effectively granting you first strike.
I think it's pretty clear what the purpose of this change is - I want to remove the ability (and the need) to "cheese" your way into attacking first, while providing a game mechanic that will allow you to do this in a more meaningful way instead using your reflexes. I think these changes will particularly benefit non-stealth characters who are often hard pressed to survive when ambushed by multiple attackers. For now the initiative is only dependent on the start mentioned above, but later on I plan to add feats/abilities/psi that will allow you to increase this base value. I'm also considering adding initiative modifiers to weapons.
by Couchpotato, Saturday - November 09, 2013 00:39
GameBanshee's WorstUsernameEver has written a five page preview of the alpha version of Underrail. I'll just share the conclusion as the article is lengthy.
Conclusions
Underrail's alpha wasn't anywhere close to perfect, as it should be abundantly clear by now, but still shows an immense amount of potential. The game is very entertaining even in this early and unpolished state, and, assuming something doesn't go very wrong during the last stretch of development, it should, at the very least, be as entertaining on release. Stygian Software's title tried to take the pen and paper aspirations of Fallout and Arcanum and a pinch of the simulational aspirations of the early 3d titles from Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm, and added to them a great dose of ambition (again, it's worth noting that the game was, aside from some art, completely developed by one single person), so you'd be forgiven for being a bit skeptical about the results. And yet it works, and in light of the recent news of the financial success of the title on Steam, the real future is looking a lot brighter than the fiction of it that Underrail presents. Brighter than ever, in fact.
A new development update for Underrail is available with news about bug fixes, and balance changes.
Hey guys, here's an update on what's been happening since the Steam release.
It will be a while longer before a new version is ready, sorry. The reason for that is that I've been somewhat busy with trying to expand the business. The game did well enough on its Steam (pre-)release that I can now afford to hire some people now that will assist with content creation. Unfortunately, this means interviewing, office space hunting, taxes, logistics, and other stuff that's cutting into my development time. So while development is a bit slow until all this settles down, it will pick up pace and go even faster afterwards.
However, I did manage to add some more Lower Underrail areas and I also made a number of balance tweaks, bug fixes and the like.
by Couchpotato, Saturday - September 28, 2013 00:22
The Armchair Empire has posted a new video to take a look at Underrail's early access release. If you haven't purchased the game give it a look.
Underrail is an old school isometric RPG in a post-apocalyptic world that recently came to Steam's Early Access program. Jeff takes a few minutes to talk about what he's experienced in the game so far.
by Couchpotato, Wednesday - September 25, 2013 00:32
The post-apocalyptic turn-based RPGUnderrail is now available on Steam Early Access.
“This game is still in development. By purchasing this game now you will gain access to the latest stable alpha build and you will receive the full game once it’s complete.
Currently a good chunk of the campaign is finished and playable, but there is still a lot to come. As the development goes on, we will be adding more areas, quests, items, abilities and enemies, until the game is finished. Save game compatibility between major content releases is not guaranteed, but you will be able to export/import your characters and use them to explore the new content.
Help us make a bigger and better game by purchasing now.”
A new development update for Underrail is available. The focus of the update deals with the games Steam achievements.
There will be 50 of them initially, but I plan to keep on adding more bit by bit with each future update. A lot of them are your usual "do something X times", but there are a number of more interesting ones and I'll also be focusing on those more in the future. Kinda wanted to get the basics done first. For those of you who are interested in Steam trading cards, I do hope to implement those at a later stage, once the character and creatures portraits are done and I have more graphical assets to work with as those require a lot.
In other news, I've also fixed a couple of bugs (along with some spelling errors, per usual):
TNT blueprint will no longer consume excess components
Tungsten steel boots icons added
New lens types will now be correctly generated with quality (all the current ones in the game are base quality; I'm sorry about that, but hey, at least their crafting requirements are low :P)
Crafting window will now remember what blueprint you had selected when you last closed it
Next I need to take care of some technical stuff and finish Steam release preparations. I'll let you guys know when it's coming out as soon as I have a confirmed date.
A new development update for Underrail is available. The focus of the update is to announce a new build version, and to remind eveyone the game is greenlit.
Okay let's cover the update first. It's currently up on Desura and GamersGate (soon to be available on Groupees website as well). Here's the list of what I've done since the last dev log, also be sure to also check out the previous three dev logs for other stuff that's new in this version.
Added TNT explosive charge that can be used to clear rocks. Many passages still don't lead anywhere even if you clear them just so you know though
Did bunch of AI work, enemies can now do the following
Use more special attacks: kneecap shot, pummel, crippling strike, execute, heavy punch, dirty kick
Use "yell" special ability
Use more drugs: adrenaline, morphine
Throw grenades: frag, HE and flashbang
Use more special bolts: acid, shock, incendiary
Use offensive and utility psi abilities
Kite their target (like psi beetles do)
Here's a summary of what I focused on in this update: I've added a bunch of areas to Lower Underrail (the place where the SGS metro station is). These are just "wilderness" areas right now so there are any new quests, but monsters to fight, traps to step, loot to collect and that sort of stuff. I also add a number of items and blueprints (gloves, riot armor) which should give you more options in building your character, as well as improved the arsenal and the AI of the existing enemies.
In the next couple of weeks I'll mostly focus on Steam integration and fixing some technical issues with the game before I move back to building content.
Underrail has just been greenlit by Steam. So let's all give congratulations to forum member Styg. You can check out the game here or on the games website.
As we work to streamline the publishing workflow and improve the tools available to developers preparing for release on Steam, we've reached a point where we are ready to stress-test our system.
The best way to accomplish this is to invite a significant number of developers to use the updated tools and systems, ship their games and software with these tools, and to give us feedback so that we may continue to improve the process.
To that end, today we've Greenlit another 100 titles, bringing the total number of titles offered worldwide Steam publishing agreements via Greenlight to 260.
We couldn't fit a list of the 100 Greenlit items in this blog post, so we have instead created an official collection listing them all out here.
A new development update for Underrail is available. The focus of the update is brawling and combat gloves.
Combat gloves can be crafting from leather or metal. The type of material used will determine the AP cost / damage payload, while the quality will determine the overall damage. You can also attach spikes, blades or more metal plating which will add extra damage in different ways.
Gloves can also have power modules, which will drain energy while performing a special on hit effect. The two modules currently available are electroshock generator (which functions in the same manner as when attached to a sledgehammer) and pneumatic hammer which, when combined with heavy punch or similar feats, can dish out quite a bit of burst damage.
When it comes to unarmed feat bonuses, some will transfer to fist weapons, while others won't. I think that currently going for gloves as opposed to pure unarmed will always be better, but I plan to change that in the future by adding more stuff for the pure martial artist type of character through feats and psi. Gloves/fist weapons should not make the pure unarmed obsolete, but rather provide an alternative path and also allow unarmed characters to overcome some of their big weaknesses such as lack of AoE and burst damage.
A new development update for Underrail is available, this time it has a focus on a new armor type: The Riot Gear Armor.
Riot Gear armor is a medium encumbrance armor that specializes against firearms and melee attacks (+100% damage threshold vs. firearms and +50% damage resistance and threshold vs. melee attacks). Like the tactical vest, it's crafted from a carrier vest and a ballistic panel and an optional overcoat fabric. You can also add metal plates to include a shield as well (will add other materials for this purpose at some point) which will increase encumbrance, but will give you a 20% chance to block certain amount of mechanical melee damage (depending on the quality of the material used). While using a riot gear armor that includes a shield you can only wield one handed weapons though (pistols, knives, crowbars).
There is also some info on bug fixes:
Also here's a couple of minor changes and bug fixes:
Increased duration of thermodinamicity to 2 turns
Reduced damage of spikes and blades when mounted on a metal armor suit, but increased their damage when mounted on boots
Fixed spikes of doom bug
It's no longer possible to refresh the duration of stun, fear and short-circuit effects
Underrail - Dev Log #18, Lower Underrail and Mad Hattering
by Myrthos, Tuesday - May 28, 2013 13:13
A short developer update for Underrail became available, providing some infrmation on the Lower Underrail area and headbands.
I'm currently in the process of building the Lower Underrail.
For those who don't know the Lower Underrail was the industrial/military zone of the big underground metro system before things went to hell, as opposed to the Upper Underrail which was the residential zone.
I have it mapped out on paper and am now going through each zone and constructing it in the editor. It's a lot of work without much to report so bear with me as I grind through it. At first, there won't be any quests or special points of interest (just containers, monsters, bandits, traps, and that stuff), until later I start adding the stations, dungeons and occasional random encounter. The metro train is also on the way. It will be connecting the aforementioned stations.
In other news, I've added psionic headbands to the game along with blueprint and components required to make them (creating them will require electronics and a bit of biology). These headbands can enhance one of the three psionic schools, but there are also universal ones that enhance all three (though those are generally weaker). Depending on what components are used, they can increase skill levels, critical chances, critical modifiers, and psi costs. I will add more components in the future that will have other effects or have greater effects (per quality) but with certain drawbacks.
Last week RPGFan did a hands-on preview of Underrail based on the available alpha build and were positively impressed with the state it is in.
"They don't make 'em like they used to." We hear it all the time, but when it comes to video games, I say nonsense to the old adage. Maybe the triple A companies don't make 'em like they used to, but there are so many independent game designers out there now catering to an old school audience that these days; they definitely DO make 'em like they used to. So much so that the way they "used to" could just become the way they are making 'em.
Unlike a lot of previews you'll read on RPGFan, we did not have any kind of exclusive access to the game. Anybody can go online right now and purchase the alpha of Underrail, which includes a copy of the beta, the full game, and future updates. In playing the game itself, I initially found it quite challenging compared to more contemporary games, getting smoked by the first pair of rats I came across. This was entirely due to carelessness on my part, but I asked Dejan what he thought of the difficulty of the alpha.
"In my opinion, the game is only hard if you're careless or just very unlucky. But obviously I'm not qualified to measure the difficulty, since I know the game mechanics inside out."
Consider me appropriately chided. But I agree with this assessment — the more I realized the encounters require planning and caution, the less trouble I had staying alive. This game is difficult in the best possible meaning of the word. That said, I wonder if gamers who are unfamiliar with that style of gaming will have trouble with this. Dejan was ambivalent on that point in a compelling way, speaking to his game design philosophy.
In their latest developer update for Underrail more information is provided on pickpocketing and feats changes.
First of all I revamped the pickpocketing mechanics as I promised. The way it works now is that when you are stealing items from an NPC you are filling up their permanent "suspicion meter". If you fill up this meter to the max you will be detected and the combat will ensue. The game will indicate how much stealing a certain item will raise the suspicion meter.
The rate at which you fill this meter will depend on the ratio between your pickpocketing skill and the victim's detection. Since the detection scales off of character's level and perception, this basically means that you'll have to continue investing points in the pickpocketing skill (and ideally dexterity as well) in order to be able to steal (or steal more) from progressively higher level NPCs. Also, some items are harder to steal than others (e.g. heavy weapons and armors in comparison to smaller stuff like ammo and hypos).
The way this system is set up it means that, unlike lockpicking and hacking, the outcome is not binary. Depending on your skill-to-detection ration and the difficulty modifier of the item, you may be able to steal zero, one or more items from a given target. So investing more skill into pickpocketing will always be useful. Because there's no dice involved in the calculations, this will also eliminate the need for save scumming.
Pickpocketing does not require stealth, unless of course you're trying to steal from a hostile NPC.
Underrail is a turn based isometric role playing game that sits upon the shoulders of classics like Fallout, Neverwinter Nights and System Shock 2. The game’s premise is that the Earth’s surface is no longer habitable, and in a last ditch attempt to survive, humanity has holed up in the underground rail systems. With no proper government to rule over the last bastion of humanity, the people have naturally grouped into factions, and you find your character in the midst of the clashes and espionage between these rivaling factions.
In the latest Underrail blog balancing the game is the major issue talked about.
Looking at the current release version, the biggest issue with the game currently mechanics-wiseis that it gets increasingly easier once the player gets past the early stages. One of the main reasons for that, which I've already addressed in the previous dev logs, is the (over)power of grenades and other AoE attacks. The biggest issue, however, is the game's economy. Namely, that the player quickly gets rich from the insane amount of loot that he can acquire. This dev log focuses primarily on that, as well as on re-balancing some other abilities/items that I've found to be a bit too good.
The biggest change here is that I've reduced the amount of loot that is available through scavenging significantly. The biggest offenders were mid-late game dungeons (I didn't mess with the starting areas, they are fine) and also somewhat corners of urban areas that were way to easy to plunder with impunity. For the most part I haven't removed any stuff from the loot table, but have rather reduced the amount of items you get (ammo, weapons/armor and especially components) and significantly reduced the chance. So basically most places that you've looted before still have some chance of holding loot in future games (very few containers are fixed to be empty), but they won't give you large amounts of loot every time like they do now.
This, coupled with item durability cost penalty should make the game more challenging and force you to manage your resources more carefully as you should no longer have unlimited amounts of grenades, special blots/ammo, psi points, batteries, etc. When it comes the time to release the new version, I'll have to test this new economy carefully with a couple of playthroughs, though, to ensure that I haven't gone too far or not far enough. After that, I'll be very interested to hear from you guys as to what your experience was in this new economy.
Indie-o-rama: Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. It’s obvious that Underrail was heavily influenced by Fallout, among other post-apocalyptic games. As we all know, Bethesda decided to go a different route with Fallout 3 or, as it’s commonly known, “Oblivion with guns”. That meant some fans were left craving for a game with the style and gameplay of the original. How much of a compromise has been met in order to acknowledge that influence, while at the same time staying true to your own ideas and concepts? Are the fans that approach Underrail expecting another Fallout, or would you rather prefer that they play the game without such prejudices?
Dejan Radisic: Well, I’m not so sure about the Fallout release timeline, but I think I started the development of Underrail even before Fallout 3 was released. Or at least I started working on the engine with the intention to build this kind of a game.
So back then there wasn’t, or at least I was not aware of, this craze with the fans that wanted the old Fallout back. And it certainly all started before this Wasteland sequel thing and all that. The game obviously draws some inspiration from Fallout, such as the mood, environments, some weapons, etc, but it wasn’t ever meant to be the new “real” Fallout. I don’t have a problem with people considering it that, though, and I believe that those who come to this game with such expectations won’t be disappointed and will find some of the old Fallout elements that are missing in the newer games. So in short, I do not mind it, but I’m also happy when people point out design differences and acknowledge the game as being it’s own thing.
Underrail - Importing Characters and More Crafting
by Dhruin, Wednesday - December 19, 2012 23:33
Stygian Games has kicked up an update on UnderRail now that things have settled down after their Alpha release. Importing/exporting characters, some autosaves and more crafting are on the agenda:
I've changed the way the lockpicks and haxxors work. Lockpicks are now spent on successful lockpicking, so they work as a resource. They have distinct power levels and icons (+0, +5, +10) and are stackable. Haxxors work similarly like they did before, but also have distinct power levels and icons and require energy (batteries) to use.
Next up is the blueprint for chemical pistols that you'll be able to use to craft guns that fire various chemicals in various forms, if you have sufficient chemistry skill that is. A chemical pistol has two major components - collector, which determines the type of substance you can load into the weapon, and dispenser, which determines the way the gun fires the substance. For now you'll only be able to create Acid Blob Pistols, but there will be more in the future. There's also "Chemical Ammo" blueprint to accompany this. If you have sufficient biology and chemistry skills you'll be able to extract acid from acid mutants and make ammo from it.
The demo of the alpha version of Underrail can now be downloaded as part of an alpha funded campaign. This means you have to pay for it and in doing so provide funds for the developer, which is an alternative to Kickstarter as explained by himself:
I've hinted earlier that I'm considering alpha funding for Underrail and now I've officially made up my mind. I originally planned on launching a crowd-funding campaign but that turned out to have too many limitations based on where I was located, so I decided alpha funding is a better option.
The game will be available for purchase in its alpha stage on a couple of digital distribution websites, and who ever purchases alpha version will, of course, receive the final game at no additional cost when it's done. Also, I plan on releasing regular content updates throughout the game's development.
With this being in this alpha version:
If you want to know what's new in this release (since the demo) you can go check out the dev log posts from the last couple of months, but let me just quickly recap the highlights:
Huge new urban zone consisting of 8 areas
Big new 'dungeon' consisting of 6 areas (twice as much as the last one)
A couple of 'mini-dungeons'
New quests
New feats
Traps skill
Some updated game mechanics
Re-balanced economy
Food
More weapons and armors
Updated crossbows (feats, special bolts, damage boost)
Then there are couple of new feats I got to implement. It's not much because this release I'm more focused on new areas, so expect a lot more in the future updates. I implemented a couple of melee feats because they were sorely missing in the demo:
Pummel - sledgehammer attack that takes the target off balance, negating dodge and evasion for 2 turns
Crippling Strike - unarmed or knife attack that deals 125% damage and reduces target's strength by 2 (stacks 3 times).
Dirty Kick - Unarmed attack that deals damage and stuns the target for 1 turn (double that if the target is human male)
Hit and Run - After you kill an enemy, your movement points are restored to 25 (or your maximum, whichever is lower)
Yell - You attempt to reduce offensive skills (guns, corssbows, melee and grenades skills) of all surrounding enemies by 20% of your intimidation skill
Shroomhead - You regenerate psi points in presence of mindshrooms when below 35% of your maximum psi
I keep forgetting to give Underrail its due...Stygian Games has posted a new update on their site and also our forums, with changes to balancing, stealth, the addition of food and new screens:
First of all I changed a bit how stealth works. You'll still be detected over time depending on your stealth skill, enemy's detection, lightning and positioning like before, unless your stealth skill is too far behind the enemy's detection in which case you won't be able to hide from them at all. This will be indicated with a silver eye above the detecting character and the true-sight is now represented by a golden eye (previously silver). The problem was that even the non-stealthy characters were using stealth excessively to move around undetected (and have guaranteed combat initiation) and it worked as long as they didn't stay too close too long because of the way the revealing speed is capped. This change should prevent that while not changing how stealth mechanics work for stealthy characters (those who invest in stealth skill and wear light armors).
Also another minor tweak to stealth - I've added a notification when you bump into other characters and fall out of stealth for that reason. Some people were confused as to what was happening, but keep in mind that if they can't see you their pathfinding won't tell them to go around you.
