2116
General / Re: Really loving the game so far
« on: October 29, 2012, 08:51:18 pm »
Hi nackidno. I'm glad you're having fun with the game. And thanks for the feedback 
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2117
Bugs / Re: Game crash upon 'New Game.'
« on: October 25, 2012, 10:06:51 am »Yes, that's exactly what I mean.Yes, otherwise I wouldn't be posting here. I've been able to access the properties, but my problem is that it won't allow me to activate the running of Underrail in administrative modeI'm having the exact same problem, except that I'm using Windows Vista instead of Windows 7. Do you have any solutions for me?
Doesn't Vista has essentially the same privilege system? Did you try the solution in the second post?
Hi.
What exactly do you mean it won't allow you? Do you mean it doesn't allow you to check 'Run this program as an administartor' property?
Are you logged on as an administrator on that machine?
2118
Development Log / Dev Log #6: Food and Balance
« on: October 25, 2012, 09:56:38 am »
I'm currently mostly working on area designs for the new release. By the end of the week I should have most of it in place (except the new dungeon which I'll tackle later) and then it's time for quests implementation.
* * * * *
I've added food to the game. You can consume different meals to gain (and sometimes also lose) different base stats for 5 minutes. You can only have one type of food buff on your character at any given time. Here are the meals I've prepared so far:
I've also added a couple easy but important changes to game balance and mechanics.
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.
I increased health scaling with levels, for both the player and non-player characters. Previously, the damage from weapons and other sources was far out-scaling the character health as you progressed in levels which ended up in very volatile fights. This change should ease that up a bit while keeping the early game unchanged. Keep in mind, though, that damage is meant to out-scale health to a certain degree because characters also have access to tougher armors and other protective stuff as the game progresses. Because of this change I've also increased the amount of health that hypos and bandages restore.
I've also doubled the psi point pool as well as psi restoration from psi boosters (also psi boosters now require three mindshrooms to make). This will allow the player focusing on psi abilities to have more sustain in combat. Some people felt like psi points need to regenerate over time, but I want it to be a resource you have to manage just like ammo and batteries. I'm considering adding other ways to restore limited amounts of psi outside of using boosters, though. We'll see.
I've significantly increased based damage multiplier of snipe ability so it should now be more powerful than aimed shot in the early game as intended (since it's a one time opening ability requiring stealth). This attack can no longer critically hit, though.
Keep in mind that none of this is set to stone. These are the changes I've arrived at by watching other people play and from hearing the feedback on the forums. Once the new version is released I will continue to keep an eye out and make changes for the sake of fun and balanced gameplay as best as I can.
* * * * *
I've added food to the game. You can consume different meals to gain (and sometimes also lose) different base stats for 5 minutes. You can only have one type of food buff on your character at any given time. Here are the meals I've prepared so far:
Rathound Barbecue: +1 strength
Cave Hopper Steak: +2 agility
Burrower Burger: +2 constitution
Eel Sandwich: +2 dexterity
Junkyard Surprise: +(1-3) random stat, -(0-3) random stat
I've also added a couple easy but important changes to game balance and mechanics.
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.
I increased health scaling with levels, for both the player and non-player characters. Previously, the damage from weapons and other sources was far out-scaling the character health as you progressed in levels which ended up in very volatile fights. This change should ease that up a bit while keeping the early game unchanged. Keep in mind, though, that damage is meant to out-scale health to a certain degree because characters also have access to tougher armors and other protective stuff as the game progresses. Because of this change I've also increased the amount of health that hypos and bandages restore.
I've also doubled the psi point pool as well as psi restoration from psi boosters (also psi boosters now require three mindshrooms to make). This will allow the player focusing on psi abilities to have more sustain in combat. Some people felt like psi points need to regenerate over time, but I want it to be a resource you have to manage just like ammo and batteries. I'm considering adding other ways to restore limited amounts of psi outside of using boosters, though. We'll see.
I've significantly increased based damage multiplier of snipe ability so it should now be more powerful than aimed shot in the early game as intended (since it's a one time opening ability requiring stealth). This attack can no longer critically hit, though.
Keep in mind that none of this is set to stone. These are the changes I've arrived at by watching other people play and from hearing the feedback on the forums. Once the new version is released I will continue to keep an eye out and make changes for the sake of fun and balanced gameplay as best as I can.
2119
Bugs / Re: Game crash upon 'New Game.'
« on: October 22, 2012, 01:33:16 pm »Yes, otherwise I wouldn't be posting here. I've been able to access the properties, but my problem is that it won't allow me to activate the running of Underrail in administrative modeI'm having the exact same problem, except that I'm using Windows Vista instead of Windows 7. Do you have any solutions for me?
Doesn't Vista has essentially the same privilege system? Did you try the solution in the second post?
Hi.
What exactly do you mean it won't allow you? Do you mean it doesn't allow you to check 'Run this program as an administartor' property?
2120
Announcements / Re: Underrail on Steam Greenlight
« on: October 18, 2012, 01:53:12 am »Voted! Looking forward to having this game on Steam!
Thanks.
It's well within top 100 so I'm confident it will get greenlighted by the time it's ready for the final release.
2121
Development Log / Re: Dev Log #5: Improving Crossbow Play
« on: October 12, 2012, 11:10:34 pm »Good, powered up crossbow. Maybe add a warhammer-style crossbow into which PSI users are able to channel their psychic energies. The bolt unleashes a deadly charge on impact [into the victims body], causing more damage to monsters or stunning people.
This warhammer-style crossbow is quite mundane in the hands of non-psi users of course. Only gets powered up, glowing with a blue light and crackling with psychic energy in the hands of psi-users.
Also one use of this crossbow could be Vampiric Channeling - upon successfully hitting the enemy the projectile instantly establishes a psychic link through which the attacker is able to suck out the life-force of the victim: like in the movie Life Force.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089489/
You do know this is sort of a sci-fi game, right?
2122
Development Log / Re: Dev Log #5: Improving Crossbow Play
« on: October 12, 2012, 11:07:53 pm »Yeah! That is some change that I like!
Exploding bolts would be cool too. And like I wrote (like before) about potential for special damage should be fully utilized. I'm mainly talking about special shots targetting limbs (I know there are already such skills, but weapon differentiation would be great - like greater chance for such skill to apply or even a tiny chance to condition appear on it's own, which could give crossbow different flavor from guns).
These are of course only suggestions, but I'm glad that work is still being done as I'm afraid that the forum is slowly dying.
I don't see a reason why crossbows specifically would be allowed to target specific limbs? As I mentioned already these sort of things will be available through special attacks, most of which will be available to crossbows as well.
Exploding bolts are something that I'll probably add at some point, it's just low priority right now as there are already grenades and mines in the game.
I wouldn't worry about the forum, I think it's just that people have played and provided feedback on all there is in the demo. I'm sure the things will pick up once the new version is released.
2123
Development Log / Dev Log #5: Improving Crossbow Play
« on: October 11, 2012, 01:44:44 am »- One of the common complaints in the demo, and one of the things that I personally wasn't very happy with, is how the crossbows were playing out. Using crossbows as primary damage source was practically impossible, so I've taken some steps to bringing the crossbows up to par with firearms and making them a viable alternative.
- Shock Bolts - These bolts inflict additional electrical damage to the primary target, stun it (works on machines as well) and then jump to nearby targets dealing smaller chunks of damage (no stun on secondary targets) in similar fashion as strikes from Shock Sledgehammer.
- Incendiary Bolts - These bolts deal heat damage to the target and have a chance to set it on fire, dealing more heat damage over next couple of turns (and, of course, panicking the living targets), but the bolt also burns everything it comes near on its flight to the primary target, dealing smaller chunks of heat damage. Keep in mind that this bolt is doubly useful against enemies that fear fire (such as rathounds).
First of all I've increased base damage of crossbows, so their straight up damage per turn potential is now about the same as 7.62mm pistols (which is another weapon class with 2 attacks per turn). Originally I kept the crossbow damage lower as I wanted to emphasize their special bolt attack strengths, but I went a bit too far there and they ended up being too weak, especially in the early game before the player could pick up any special bolts. Also, because crossbow attacks already incur more of mechanical damage resistance (125%) and have no way of overcoming that in regular attacks (no armor piercing rounds) there is no need to penalize them further by assigning them lower base damage.
The second problem was a lack of multi-target special bolts, so now I've added two of those. They fulfill similar roles but in different ways.
Both of these type of bolts can also be crafted if you have enough skill points in electronics or chemistry respectively.
And the last thing I've added is the Special Tactics feat which gives you the ability that you can activate while you're out of combat to make your next special bolt attack cost no action points. The point of this is to give crossbows some burst potential in fights that you initiate.
I hope you guys like these changes and that they'll get more of you trying out crossbows in the future.
2124
General / Re: First Impressions
« on: October 08, 2012, 10:59:26 am »
Hi Femlob
Thanks for the compliments and feedback.
Thanks for the compliments and feedback.
2125
General / Re: How much gameplay is left after you hit the burrowers?
« on: October 08, 2012, 10:56:47 am »
That's the last area of the demo.
2126
Development Log / Re: Dev Log #4: New Skill: Traps
« on: October 01, 2012, 07:00:06 pm »Should both be nice additions.
Any idea when the next release will be ready?
Probably by the end of October.
2127
Development Log / Re: Dev Log #4: New Skill: Traps
« on: October 01, 2012, 06:59:46 pm »Nice! Traps are always good. They add a flavor to fights. And EMP ones will be probably most useful against patrolling robots - like on Omega station.
Will stealing also considered a crime in controlled sections? And hiding? How it will be tackled?
Stealing will still be handled like it is now. You either get caught during the action or you don't, zone control doesn't factor into it.
2128
Development Log / Dev Log #4: New Skill: Traps
« on: September 28, 2012, 12:19:35 am »
Originally I planned to add traps to the alpha demo but ended up postponing that to get the demo out earlier. They're in now, though.
There are currently three types of land mines you can rig up: frag, high-explosive and EMP. When they're triggered they have same effects as their grenade counterparts. You can also craft these yourself if you have high enough chemistry/electronics. There will be more traps in the future and not all of them will be mines.
Except rigging up the area before a battle and luring your foolish enemies into minefields, I figure trapping will also be very useful in eliminating patrolling enemies. At least those not skillful enough to spot and/or disarm your traps.
Speaking of NPC behavior, I've also introduced a new concept to the game called zone control.
I was thinking of how the game should handle player criminal behavior such as murdering people through various means. And more specifically, I thought about how NPCs should react to you placing traps everywhere and turning their private quarters into mine fields.
I want to prevent exploits such as carpeting an area with traps and killing off high level non-hostile NPCs in the middle of their home base without triggering hostilities and then promptly looting their kickass gear. But on the other hand I want to sometimes allow player to use traps as an assassination mechanism where it's actually appropriate as I think that can be a lot of fun. Ideally the NPCs would be very smart and once a trap has been set off they'd start an investigation and look for a culprit, etc. However, Underrail is not a simulation game and that kind of AI programming is way out of the scope of the game.
So I went with a simpler solution which is to tag each area with certain control level - full, partial or none, which indicates how safe it is for the player to mess around with traps (and in the future murdering, etc) and how the controlling factions of the area will react to your shenanigans.
The UI shows the zone control indicator in the upper right corner and you can mouse over it to see what sort of action you can get away with and what is too risky in the current area.
As far as traps are concerned:
There are currently three types of land mines you can rig up: frag, high-explosive and EMP. When they're triggered they have same effects as their grenade counterparts. You can also craft these yourself if you have high enough chemistry/electronics. There will be more traps in the future and not all of them will be mines.
Except rigging up the area before a battle and luring your foolish enemies into minefields, I figure trapping will also be very useful in eliminating patrolling enemies. At least those not skillful enough to spot and/or disarm your traps.
Speaking of NPC behavior, I've also introduced a new concept to the game called zone control.
I was thinking of how the game should handle player criminal behavior such as murdering people through various means. And more specifically, I thought about how NPCs should react to you placing traps everywhere and turning their private quarters into mine fields.
I want to prevent exploits such as carpeting an area with traps and killing off high level non-hostile NPCs in the middle of their home base without triggering hostilities and then promptly looting their kickass gear. But on the other hand I want to sometimes allow player to use traps as an assassination mechanism where it's actually appropriate as I think that can be a lot of fun. Ideally the NPCs would be very smart and once a trap has been set off they'd start an investigation and look for a culprit, etc. However, Underrail is not a simulation game and that kind of AI programming is way out of the scope of the game.
So I went with a simpler solution which is to tag each area with certain control level - full, partial or none, which indicates how safe it is for the player to mess around with traps (and in the future murdering, etc) and how the controlling factions of the area will react to your shenanigans.
The UI shows the zone control indicator in the upper right corner and you can mouse over it to see what sort of action you can get away with and what is too risky in the current area.
As far as traps are concerned:
- In fully controller areas (such as SGS station) if someone from the controlling faction detects your trap, you'll immediately get in trouble with that faction;
- In partially controlled areas you'll only get in trouble if someone from the controlling faction sets off your trap
- In uncontrolled areas you can set traps as much as you like and if someone happens to set it off and get killed, no one will be able to trace this to you
2130
Discussions / Re: [Exchange of ideas] If you think about UnderRail, you ...
« on: September 25, 2012, 10:44:03 pm »
You'll be able to blow up rocks in the future to clear up passages to new areas.