Dev Log #74: 10-Year Anniversary Update (1.3)

[Styg]

See nicely formatter HTML version on the website.

Hi guys,

It has been 10 years since Underrail hit its 1.0 version. In celebration, we're releasing a small but important update that touches up the game's visuals and delivers an extra weapon to the Heavy Duty arsenal.

https://stygiansoftware.com/videos/devlogs/underrail/74/loop_uniques.mp4

First, we've created unique sprites for all of the game's unique weapons. These should now be visible when the player equips them, except on a few armor types and when riding jet skis (but we plan to correct this in the future).

https://stygiansoftware.com/videos/devlogs/underrail/74/loop_rocketlauncher.mp4

Secondly, we added a new weapon to the Heavy Guns roster - the rocket launcher. As you might expect, it's a high-powered high-AP area of effect weapon that requires a lot of strength to wield. It can fire 4 different rocket types and there are even some unique ones that have their own payloads.

Lastly, we've started work on localization support. This is going to be something that will remain in slow but active development over the next year, as I slowly migrate all the game's text into external files. As it stands right now, though, most of the UI elements and the dialog can be freely translated.

To learn more about how to do this, visit our Localization sub-forum.

We also made a bunch of other smaller and medium balance changes, with the major focus being on the impact of the intelligence stat.

Here's the full list:

General

• Unique weapons now have custom sprites when held (except on jet skis)
• Extracted a good amount of text of the game into .txt files for localization; UI elements, object names, items, abilities, dialogs and more can be localized as of now; further localization support is in development
• Intelligence now influences the speed at which the player gains level. For oddity system this is accomplished by reducing the oddity requirements at appropriate levels, while in classic mode the amount of experience gained is modified. The effect is not drastic, but should be noticeable.
• [Heavy Duty] Added Rocket Launchers
  

Graphics

• Improved the fog of war and nightvision shaders; you can switch to the old one in video settings if you prefer the old look

Difficulty

• NPCs now gain 3% crit chance bonus on Dominating difficulty for weapon and psi attacks
• NPCs health is now increased by 100% (up from 50%) on Dominating difficulty
• NPCs health is now increased by 50% on Hard difficulty (previously it was not increased at all)

Items

• Increased the base healing amount of enriched health hypos by about 25%
• Mining helmet and headlamp enhancements will now project light in a cone in front of the user; range increased
• [Heavy Duty] Increased The Stunner's hacking requirement from 120 to 150
  

Crafting

• Changed the crafting requirement base from fixed 80% of component quality to ranging from 77% to 112% component quality, scaling with the quality itself (curving up); Tweaked the specific modifiers for various components.
• Metal combat gloves have their strength scaling changed to +10% for STR over 5 (down from 7)
• Reduced the shield conversion rate of High Efficiency Energy Converter
• Base energy shield conversion rate increased
• Circular Wave Amplifier's energy shield conversion rate penalty no longer scales with component quality
• Increased the Circular Wave Amplifier's effect on shielding values
• Silencer no longer reduces damage (this change does not affect already crafted/generated pistols)
• [Heavy Duty] The grenade launcher technical manuals publication used in firearm refurbishing has been changed to also include rocket launchers
  

Feats

• Expose Weakness - now reduces resistance and threshold by 30% plus 2% per intelligence (down from fixed 50%) and the effect is halved for non-living targets; cooldown change to 5 turns (up from 4)
• High-Technicalities now also increases damage from energy edge and electroshock modules
• Hit and Run - when triggered multiple times in the same turn, the maximum movement points reset point gets halved with each triggering
• Fancy Footwork - when triggered multiple times in the same turn, the amount of movement points gain is reduced by 1 point each time
• Cheap Shots - Incapacitation chance changed to 8% (down from 15%)
• Heavy Punch - Damage changed to 300% (up from 180%); AP cost changed to 150% (down from 200%); now has 3 turns cooldown
• Cut-throat - Action point cost changed to 15 (down from 25)
• Pummel - cooldown changed to 1 turn (down from 3 turns)
• Expanded Psi Capacitance - Now also increase psi regeneration by 1% of max psi reserves
• Mantra - Psi regen bonus changed to 10 (up from 5)
• Added Polymath - Immediately grants 15 skill points and additional 5 skill points at every subsequent level
• [Expedition] Added Specialist (Level 16, Intelligence 10) - Grants 1 additional specialization point per level
  
• [Heavy Duty] - Shell Shock now also works with rocket launchers and the skill requirement can now be fulfilled by Heavy Guns skill
  
• [Heavy Duty] - Demolition Man now also works with rocket launchers and the skill requirement can now be fulfilled by Heavy Guns skill
  
• [Heavy Duty] - Bullet Trance - will only work with LMGs and miniguns
  
• [Heavy Duty] - Added Beast of Burden (requires strength 10) - Increases carry capacity by 150
  

Specializations

• Added Heavy Punch: Damage - Increases damage by 10% for each specialization point (max: 10)
• Added Heavy Punch: Action Point - Reduces the action point cost modifier by 10% for each specialization point (max: 5)
• [Heavy Duty] Added Beast of Burden specialization - Further increases carry capacity by 15 for each specialization point (max: 5)
  

Psi

• Forcefield now has resistances that scale with skill
• Cryogenic Barrier now has mechanical resistance that scales with skill
• Exothermic Aura now burns off throwing nets and webs that entangle the invoker
• Psychokinetic Chain - now transfers 20%+0.2% per skill (up from 15%+0.1%) up to max of 70% (up from 30%); max flat damage changed to 30+0.7 per skill (up from 15+0.35); psi cost changed to 25 (down from 35)
• Psychosomatic Predation - killing the target now also resets the cooldown
• [Expedition] Stasis can now absorb maximum of 10 damage per effective skill point
  
• [Expedition] Temporary Rewind - action point cost changed to 20 (down from 25), cooldown changed to 6 (down from 8 ), reversion delayed by an additional turn
  

Tweaks

• Skill-based damage bonus for light weapons (those that have their AP cost reduced by Dexterity, which are: pistols, SMGs, unarmed, fist weapons, and knives) changed from the standard 0.7% per skill to 0.5% per skill
• Cold effects will now remove a stack of Warmed Up
• Minimal weapon usage action point cost changed to 5 (up from 4)
• Added dry-firing sound effects
• Contamined - damage taken bonus per stack changed to 5% (down from 10%)
• [Expedition] Plasma grenade now performs one attack with both damage type instead of two attacks; this does not change damage in any way but will make evading it more consistent
  
• [Expedition] Heartbreak poison duration will no longer be refreshed with stacking
  
• [Expedition] Added new shotgun loading/reloading sounds
  
• [Expedition] Putting a Locust Hive in Stasis will prevent it from releasing locusts
  
• [Heavy Duty] Added new grenade launcher loading/reloading sounds
  
• [Heavy Duty] Reduced damage of grenade launchers across the board by about 20%
  
• [Heavy Duty] Adjusted optimal ranges for grenade launchers, will not affect those already crafted
  
• [Heavy Duty] Certain truesighted robots now have their truesight sight ranged decoupled (and lowered) from their normal sight range
  
• [Heavy Duty] The Gunslinger will no longer give you a certain item unless you reached a certain point in the Compound quest together
  

Bugs

• Fixed some old rare save/load bug that might have been the root cause of the rare save data corruption bug
• Fixed not being able to report one of the Hephaestus Research quest outcomes to Colonel Cathcart in a specific case
• No longer able to change the zoom level when using cameras, spying endoscope and the like
• [Expedition] Shattering a target with a spear attack will now properly apply spear guard
  
• [Expedition] Fixed reinforced leper serpent skin boots displaying the wrong icon
  
• [Expedition] Fixed provoking hostilities when using a certain laptop at The Rig when reloading a game even if the player has been granted access to it
  
• [Expedition] Locust hives no longer have knees and ribs (that can be shot and broken)
  
• Various minor dialog/zone fixes

[deanisi]

I really appreciate the work done for sprites and localization, finally I can introduce my non english speaking friends to this game.
New content is always welcomed and small increase in difficulty isn't hurting either. But some choices make my scrath my head in lack of understanding.

All the buffs and changes like what you guys did with INT is just different. Not bad or good, just different from what I've used to know for these last years. Well, at least it's a good reson to start a new run.

But debuffs are what I have a hard time understanding, especially dexterity perks like footwork and Hit & Run. It feels like dexterity builds were nerfed in general, which is strange cause I don't feel that they were that strong.

I can understand buffs and reworks, some skills were in need of them (stasis was too strong and heartbreak poison was ridiculous to use with constand immobilizing and running away). But what are reasons behind nerfing damage of light weapons or hit and run for example?

Can you guys share an intent behind those nerfs?

[Alt]

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 

[Styg]

I really appreciate the work done for sprites and localization, finally I can introduce my non english speaking friends to this game.
New content is always welcomed and small increase in difficulty isn't hurting either. But some choices make my scrath my head in lack of understanding.

All the buffs and changes like what you guys did with INT is just different. Not bad or good, just different from what I've used to know for these last years. Well, at least it's a good reson to start a new run.

But debuffs are what I have a hard time understanding, especially dexterity perks like footwork and Hit & Run. It feels like dexterity builds were nerfed in general, which is strange cause I don't feel that they were that strong.

I can understand buffs and reworks, some skills were in need of them (stasis was too strong and heartbreak poison was ridiculous to use with constand immobilizing and running away). But what are reasons behind nerfing damage of light weapons or hit and run for example?

Can you guys share an intent behind those nerfs?

- Light weapons had double scaling - one through bonus damage from skill and the other from reduced AP cost. I reduced the amount scaling from skill in order to reign the damage per turn in a bit.
- Fancy footwork and Hit and Run were previously able to restore ridiculous amounts of MP per turn. These diminishing returns are more than reasonable.
- Expose Weakness allowed some weapons to largely ignore their innate disadvantage when fighting robots, which should serve to offset their general high damage and utility. Hence the change to this ability.

[Vokial]

- Fancy footwork and Hit and Run were previously able to restore ridiculous amounts of MP per turn. These diminishing returns are more than reasonable.

Literally every single person in this sub 100% was hating on Hit and Run and absolutely salivating on Sprint with me as the single exeption praising it, totally willing to die on this hill. To me, this confirms that nobody else tried it. Should they did, they would've known how immensely tenfold better H&R was in comparison to Sprint. However, they still lectured others like they know what they were talking about, while not having the slightest idea. To me, that always looked ridiculously stupid and made me loose all respect for these people, simply due to them making these practices.

It's still better btw... but Styg just encouraged them to not try it for sure. Anyway, this was a needless nerf. In order to get loads of MP bonus, you had to meet with several conditions, like already emptying your MP and delivering a deadly shot. Then emptying your MP again. While Sprint is unconditional. While in practice, this is just you properly planning the sequence of your actions, I still think that the nerf is unjustified. Anyway - the update proves my point from the dev himself. So there's that. Just wanted to put that out for the sprinting loosers out there that are now never get the chance to experience the utter freedom of flying through the area of several corners after 6 deadly sniper shots per round, killing enemies even when they were behind cover before the turn. You all missed it and will never get to experience it.

[Alt]

WHO CARES ABOUT MP FEATS, HAVE YOU SEEN THESE NEW SPRITES??? WE CAN FNLY ROLL WITH STYLE

[harperfan7]

Turbodevil and I have both posted builds with Hit & Run where we do exactly that, except his was pistols and mine was hammers.  A couple years ago on the discord, it was discovered that H&R refunds ap-ignoring mp like from sprint or haste or jumping bean, meaning even with 95% armor penalty you can move around quite a bit.