Messages

16

Other Games / Re: Fallout 1.5: Resurrection

« on: February 18, 2021, 03:11:32 pm »

What do you know? Another great video:

Bethesda NEVER understood Fallout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8U4k2Ik6yk

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Other Games / Re: Fallout 1.5: Resurrection

« on: February 17, 2021, 05:10:22 am »

Just saw a new video pop up in my feed, "OG Fallout was Bleak."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d-MF2_CgP8

Only watched some of it, but it's possible this guy gets it, that the bleak moribund setting was key to the original Fallout.

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General / Re: What do you think the best OST track in Underrail is?

« on: January 22, 2021, 04:49:50 am »

Hmmm, yes. That's a good description of the Faceless theme. A storm of senses.

The Faceless are alien, as is the theme, but 'horror' is subjective. You could alternately see it as people who have to face tragedy and horrors, but soldier on.

I'll have to listen carefully to that track.

I also enjoyed the Drop Zone theme a great deal. I used the area as a shortcut through Core City before they implemented the time compression. Once you clear a path through there, you can travel safely. [Dev. is probably reading this and will throw in some random encounters now.]

I never put an outpost in the Mini-Izi house, because once I get to Core City I just start making the preparations to take the Core City house. Don't you end up having to move all your stuff there, or do you just skip paying all the money for the mansion you get?

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General / Re: Post-nerf sniper rifle

« on: January 15, 2021, 01:34:21 am »

First unarmed, then SMG, then Sniper, the builds I'm playing through always get modified mid-playthrough.

At least I was able to do a full-PSI playthrough before that got nerfed.

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General / Re: What do you think the best OST track in Underrail is?

« on: January 15, 2021, 01:33:02 am »

Very insightful comments. I agree with everything that was said.

For me, the most ingrained track is "Lower Underrail." I guess I spent more time there than in the Water Caves.

I remember reading about how things get deeper, and if you keep going deep and far enough, you might meet the Faceless. I always assumed your character would follow some extensive descending tunnel until finally finding the Faceless home!

But, we know, there are probably things even deeper.

Yes, it's a strong case that Deep Caverns is sadder and more emblematic of the game's themes than Scientific. I remember listening to it in front of the powered-down [or newly powered-up, on emergency power] scientific buildings, a dusty shadow of what they once were. A slow beat - DC is in its own 'time-signature' now, not Biocorp's frenetic pace.

Commenting on Fallout, some people remarked that when setting up a 2D isometric RPG, you should start with sound design. While that's somewhat of an exaggeration, I think that it is fundamental to the game.

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General / What do you think the best OST track in Underrail is?

« on: December 29, 2020, 05:42:38 am »

After some 600 hours in the game, I think it's "Scientific."

It just captures the lost possibilities of where South Underrail could perhaps be if the 'government' hadn't fallen. So many talented scientists working on innovative things, maybe with hope of absolving their conditions. But it wouldn't be.

Instead, labs like Hecate are now overrun with failed experiments, long paying for the sins of Biocorp. A mixture of high-tech, hope, and decay. You can even hear the buzzing of the broken power conduits. And it's cyclical and iterative, as things seem just get worse with each cycle in Underrail.

And the track works for so many locations.

As one person observes on the Youtube OST:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftWRSvRbUV0

1:03:25 Scientific is my favourite. So moving, emotional, mysterious, and heartbreaking. Just captures this game's loneliness with its intrigue perfectly.

and another...

"Scientific" sounds like something that could have been composed by the great Alexander Brandon (Best known for his work on the Unreal and Deus Ex soundtracks).

It's an A+ piece in an A album.

22

Other Games / Re: Fallout 1.5: Resurrection

« on: December 22, 2020, 09:03:47 pm »

I played through Fallout 1.5 a few times back in 2018.

It's very, very true to Fallout. Subconsciously, it's almost frustrating because it showed that's it is possible to make a good Fallout game in the present-day.

There's a lot of people making excuses for the sequels to Fallout 2, and NV's shortcomings, and then Fallout 1.5 comes along as if Fallout 2 had been the most recent game produced.

The bittersweet victories, the haunting, hollow moribund world, small enlightened factions clinging to the last scraps of civilization. A thematically-realistic world in which no-body gives you something for nothing, or expects anything. The continuation of characters from Fallout 1. The sense that everything is about to sunset on humanity. It's perfect, and I never thought we would get anything this good.

A.T.O.M. RPG is also fun as the 'Russian Fallout.'

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General / Re: ACoNR explained *spoiler*

« on: April 29, 2020, 10:13:52 pm »

Thanks for being so thorough and gathering all these logs.

It seems that Acorns could be used for a variety of things, building various megastructures. As you say, one of those megastructures could be a mobile habitat, which may be the design inside the Acorn you recover. I'm glad you had the interest to follow-up.

Although, the "mobile habitat" idea so far is mostly Oldfield's theory. He read about mobile habitats in one document, and speculated that the type of habitat built by AcoNR is "mobile." Is anyone else saying "mobile habitat?" Although, Eidein's talk of "Bridging Worlds" may relate to the Professor's talk about Horizon.

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General / Re: Need help for a cosplay with friends, what's in a JKK Tactful jacket and gear?

« on: April 29, 2020, 09:40:37 pm »

I'd love to get a JKK tactful jacket. Does it come with charisma bonuses?

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General / Re: What are the defining Underrail atmospheric moments for you?

« on: April 29, 2020, 09:28:28 pm »

Yes, it was sickening to slowly learn about the disgusting roles played by some of the familiar people at SGS. And the world of Underrail is so cutthroat that in some cases I saw it is a potential advantage to have such people on board. Much as the game creators would prefer, I think.

26

Suggestions / Re: Deep Caves & Final Battle re-design suggestions.

« on: March 14, 2020, 04:55:24 am »

or maybe Dude (who i'm convinced is a god man)

What I personally dislike in DC is the sharp and awkward turn to space opera tier of cosmic fantasy. You're lurking decently scientific post-cyberpunk world with some limited psionics (you possibly didn't even get to oculus in your first playthrough) for 50 hours, and boom, here is your exposition dump, now there are leviathans. godmen, magic portals, other realities, "flesh of the high ones" and all the new age shtuff. I would really prefer it to stay more grounded.  Expediion does kind the same with it's final revelation, but is much better paced and written and it is still kinda optional.

But still, the problem is, for the next expansion/sequel etc, I'm not exactly surely how am I going to take seriously all these down to earth "kill 20 raiders" quests, knowing that the game is ultimately about cosmic horrors and struggles of resident superhumans. But I guess it is too late to fix now.

There's always been a kind of weird tension / conflict in Underrail between the relatively down-to-earth post-cyberpunk world you inhabit, and this high-space-opera cosmic fantasy. In the latter, unbelievably-powerful beings are traveling all over the galaxy, blowing up moons, traveling through dimensions. Time is not necessarily linear, we are playing with gods of time and space.

So what does the little ant-farm of Underrail mean in all of this? Some people like to talk about 'choice and consequence,' but what do your choices matter for Underrail if it is a cosmic speck that could be wiped away with a shift of space-time? That kind of morbid question fits in with the series, though.

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General / What are the defining Underrail atmospheric moments for you?

« on: March 14, 2020, 04:06:20 am »

What are the moments in Underrail that define the game from a visual and atmospheric point-of-view to you? Like something that you might see in your sleep after playing 18 hours of Underrail.

For me, it's the first entrance into Panacea Labs. It's an abandoned research lab in the middle of nowhere, only it would have been merely out-of-the-way, off a major transit corridor when it was built. Kind of a forgettable location before the fall.

And here you are. Very unassuming entrance. And of course there are mutant dogs patrolling just past the entryway. What amplifies this environment for me is the musical track, "Lab Report." Where it's playing a technological beat, as this was once a place of hope and high civilization, and has now degraded like everything else. So it becomes a mutant cleanup, but it wasn't always like this in Panacea Lab.

And you would only know about this place because of its ties to an ancient Biocorp experiment, otherwise you'd just enter as a scavenger like everyone else.

So it kind of exemplifies the environment of Underrail for me.


Other atmospheric moments are Dude's portal quest in general, and a number of places within the Deep Caverns. Like meeting those slug/snail creatures just hanging around amidst junk, hiding in bunkers to avoid the Eye, trying to get all the way to the bottom of the mutagen tanks and back up before being spotted, it's creepy along those walkways. And the introduction to DC itself, where you follow a path of genetically-modified fungus into an even weirder place beyond.

How about you? Like, if I had to draw a Fallout-style loading screen for Underrail, entering Panacea Labs would be one of them.

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Suggestions / Re: Body Horror should delay stacking of creeping dread

« on: November 19, 2019, 10:58:18 pm »

If anything, it should give a bonus to combat damage against the final opponent.

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Development Log / Re: Dev Log #64: Version 1.1.1.0 - Core City Factions Update

« on: November 03, 2019, 11:26:09 pm »

Of course this comes out just after I finished the Core City campaign!

Will I still be able to get the 'unique item?'

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General / What do you need to "finish" the Lemurian Health Centre properly? (spoilers)

« on: October 11, 2019, 09:49:55 pm »

I played Expedition once with a 3 WIL character who had already beat the game.

She was able to "do the job" for the doctor at the end of the Health Centre, because she had already "seen things." (Presumably Tchort.)

If a character was just coming in from the Core City quests, around Level 18, would they be able to handle that segment? I am thinking of bringing a 3 WIL character to Expedition, but I don't want to have to just shoot the robot and fail the "quest."