Dev Log #69: Crossing the Styx

[Styg]

Hi guys,

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

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

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

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

Items

• You can now throw acid vials
• Obscure weapon improved in an obscure way [Lemurian Spear works with High-Technicalities]
• Infused Bison leather will now provide more fortitude when crafting boots (not applied retroactively)
• Vigorous Belt now also grants 15 fortitude
• AI Scrambler and Hypno Goggle value will now scale with their effective level

UI

• Added a toggle on the right side of the action bar that, when turned on, will prevent you from interacting with all containers and other usables while in turn-based mode; The main purpose of this feature is to prevent you from misclicking enemy remains, but it will also help with the doors
• In character sheet window, modified skill values that are currently affected by syngergies will be highlighted in yellow

Specializations

• Reduced the max spec points that can be invested in Wrestling spec to 5, since more would just take you over 100% chance to apply. If you invested more than that: lol noob! (j/k You'll get those back on the next level up (unless you're max level in which case: lol noob!))

Metal Weapon Changes

• Tungsten sledgehammer critical chance reduced by 1%
• Supersteel sledgehammer critical chance increased by 2%
• Supersteel sledgehammer action point cost reduced by 2
• Supersteel spear will now grant 3% precision bonus
• Supersteel machete will now grant 3% precision bonus
• Supersteel machete action point cost reduced by 1
• Supersteel combat knife will now grant 5% precision bonus

Pistol changes

• Increased critical hit chance of all firearm pistols by 3% (new base is 10% now)
• Firearm pistols damage increased by about 25%
• Firearm pistols now ignore up to 40% of target's evasion at close range
• Sharpshooter now grants the critical damage bonus to firearm pistols at all times regardless of focus
• Added Gun-Fu feat - When attacking with firearm pistols in melee range, your effective attack skill is increased by 40% (up to 60% through specialization) of your unmodified melee skill for all purposes, including the damage done
• Added Bullet Time feat - When activated, reduces action point cost of firing firearm pistols by 30% (up to 50% through specialization) until the end of the turn.

Throwing Knives

• Reduced the base damage by about 20%, they now incur 130% of mech resistance and threshold (up from 125%), but the damage that passes the armor is increased by 75%
• Added Remote Surgeon feat - Increases the unresisted damage modifier of throwing knives by additional 50% (up to 100% through specialization)
• Added Knife Throw's Gloves which increase knife throwing precision by 5% and reduce AP cost by 3
• Added Shock Shurikens

AI

• Certain plasma sentries will now deploy their plasma cannons in real-time and wait for the player

Mechanical Tweaks

• Incendiary grenades will no longer be activated if they hit a traversable water tile (they will trigger if they hit an occupied water tile, though)
• Groin Guard now also grants immunity to Dirty Kick's extra stun duration
• TNT Charge will now use the new explosion visuals (same as HE grenades)
• Pyrokinetic stream will now emit light
• Added a small cooldown to playing sounds that should, hopefully, prevent volume stacking
• Fixed a number of ability and feat descriptions to properly state "humanoid" instead of "human" if they affect that category
• Fixed a number of ability and item descriptions to state when the bonuses are only affecting weapon and unarmed attacks
• Fortitude will now help with poison resistance (mostly manifested through reducing poison duration)

Content

• Added Napalm Barrels, a stronger version of regular explosive barrel that also spawns fire; these can be thrown by the usual suspects
• A certain very, very bad gas that's been released into an under-passage hideout now dissipates after some time
• Added the Lost Vault dungeon in Upper Caves
• Added new Core City sewers random fragments
• Added new GMS vault cave which are randomly selected when starting a new game. Ongoing playthroughs will still have the default map
• Added a new source of very bad gas inside a certain bunker in Upper Caves
• [Expedition] Added the ability to climb up the cliff at the entrance to the Black Sea (requires some high agility)
  
• [Expedition] Added a rift to Fort Apogee
  
• [Expedition] Added a certain mentioned wild boar to the Hathorian hunting grounds. Snort!
  

Content Tweaks

• Decreased movement speed and movements points of Tithonus Lab residents; also tweaked their AI as to make them more likely to give up chasing the player
• Added the ability to peek over the guard rail outside Arke's power room to see if anything's waiting near the elevator
• The player can now tell the Core City warehouse defenders to set up their defenses at three different positions in the building
• Various minor changes to the Lost Vault entrance area, as well as some npc and dialog tweaks
• The Emporion Mall Lunatics are now a bit less sensitive to sound. Reckless players will still be able to alert entire floors, but playing with care will result in fighting smaller groups at a time, which also prevents pathfinding slowdowns
• Jookhela got a new coat of paint
• [Expedition] Minor tweaks to Ray's Shop as to prevent a few camera vision exploits
  
• [Expedition] Dude will now make you another Juice in case you waste the first one.
  
• [Expedition] He'll also take hydraulic fluid from DC instead of a certain gun lube (as they're both mineral oil-based).
  
• [Expedition] ...and he accepts mushroom brew as currency following a certain event.
  
• [Expedition] Reduced the slowdown that occurs during the boat-riding cutscene at the start of the expedition
  

Bugs

• Pyrokinetic stream will now properly apply Thermodynamicity when the invocation ends
• Pyromaniac's extra damage from specialization will now properly be applied
• Thermodynamic Destabilization can now trigger Pyromaniac
• Psi window will now be hidden while the character sheet is open like other windows are
• Invoking Psycho-temporal Contraction while already under effects of one will not grant you more action and movement points in that turn
• Fixed the value rounding bug when displaying character damage resistances
• Fixed the bug that caused doppelgangers to not despawn in real-time combat
• Fixed a long standing animation glitch that caused the animation to abruptly end after the psi ability is invoked
• Fixed the bug that would sometimes cause the game to crash when an acid barrel is thrown
• Fixed the bug that would sometimes cause the death screen to be uninteractble when you die during a cutscene
• Fixed being able to avoid confronting Jookhela through the power of turn-based mode exploits
• Fixed Tobias in Tithonus Lab turning on the power during turn-based combat instead of trying to make sure it's off
• Fixed Aran not getting a health buff on Dominating
• Fixed GMS level 3 doors not working with automatic door opening option checked
• Fixed sometimes not getting xp when completing a certain assassination quest for Edgar
• [Expedition] Fixed not being able to talk to Katya after visiting "the cave", as well as a certain dialog option not showing up regarding something you see at the entrance to the Black Sea
  
• Various minor dialog and map fixes and tweaks

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

Cheers.

[UnLimiTeD]

Very, very nice changes!
Didn't expect that kind if niche content, but I guess I'll have to eventually actually look into it. I always appreciate those little efforts despite or maybe because they aren't the most obvious.
I see you made SS weapons useful! And buffed pistols, which I suppose they needed. Though I guess that also makes unique pistols even less interesting?

Throwing Knives

B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L! They needed something. Probably still worse than spamming frags, but there's a potential niche with the extra damage versus unarmoured.
Now all that's left on my wishlist is an extra feat or two for chem- and e-pistols -- not because they need them, but so there's something to spend those feats on.

In character sheet window, modified skill values that are currently affected by syngergies will be highlighted in yellow

Not sure what that means, but I'll look at my earliest convenience.
An unexpected patch, but a welcome one. 

[hilf]

Do shurikens count as throwing knives?
Will we be able to throw other vial types?

[jubisloviu]

• 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.

Absolutely amazing, Gun-fu will turn knives+mech pistols from a niche build to a really good one!

[UnLimiTeD]

It also synergizes exceedingly well with Versatility, it seems.
Also, someone on discord reported that shurikens don't actually work atm.

[Niko]

Oh, when just yesterday I was planning a new firearm pistol play through. Styg this is pure gold. Thanks

[cypherusuh]

>AI Scrambler and Hypno Goggle value will now scale with their effective level
Just in time when I just finished planning for JKK agent roleplay build

>Added a toggle on the right side of the action bar that, when turned on, will prevent you from interacting with all containers and other usables while in turn-based mode; The main purpose of this feature is to prevent you from misclicking enemy remains, but it will also help with the doors.
This "small" feature might be the most important thing across the whole patch note. Now please fix the Bear Trap hitbox so player wont accidentally step on it while trying to disarm it.

>Supersteel sledgehammer action point cost reduced by 2
In the grand scheme of things, does this matters at all? I guess you could throw grenade while on adrenaline / PTC, but I assumed that Ti-Chrome is still the better choice for 4x attack. The rest of SS weaponry seems really good tho, especially Machete.

>Pistol changes
Now this, this is good. Gun-Fu will increased Versatility bonus even more (although im not sure how it applies after Versatility), and Bullet Time could push the AP cost even further down. Adrenaline + PTC will be deadly.

>Throwing Knives
As a throwing enthusiast, I'm not sure about the base damage reduction AND more armor penalty. It'll make Bladelings and Metal Armor people a lot more annoying to handle and requires grenade throw to handle instead of with throwing knife. The glove is nice addition tho. And I remembered ranting about shock throwing knife 2-3 years ago, so its nice that I'm still alive to see the day Styg finally adds it. Now please adds Serrated Throwing Knife

>Added a small cooldown to playing sounds that should, hopefully, prevent volume stacking
Hopefully this fixed that REALLY loud TK punch sound at early SGS.

>Pyrokinetic stream will now properly apply Thermodynamicity when the invocation ends
RIP The Dragon pure metathermics build 2021-2021

[Elite]

Guess its time for another playthrough.

[darkelf]

Is this the final update? By the way, it is great, looking forward to try a pistol build. 

[Othienka]

Is this the final update? By the way, it is great, looking forward to try a pistol build. 

Hopefully not

[Moth]

man, this is really  time for another playthrough. Team behind this game is incredible!

Also, would hope to not miss this new story content!