Dev Log #27: Version 0.1.10.0 released

[Sakuragi]

....

You gotta read what i have written. I have started a fresh game (never imported any character) and i am doing what i do with the classic system. I kill everything loot everything and explore all areas except for those limited by stats. And i am still level 2 (nearly 3) but with classic system i would be level 4 already after finishing the hopper quest (the one where you have to capture three cave hoppers). I am not talking about later in the game because i have not even started GMS compound quest. Its the early game that i am talking about.

This is from my experience of patch 1.09 with classic where i got to level 4 after the hopper quest but maybe in this patch 1.10 Styg has reduced the amount of experience gained. Maybe in later levels the oddity system would be faster/ equal to the classic system but early on the leveling feels really really slow.

[Styg]

....

You gotta read what i have written. I have started a fresh game (never imported any character) and i am doing what i do with the classic system. I kill everything loot everything and explore all areas except for those limited by stats. And i am still level 2 (nearly 3) but with classic system i would be level 4 already after finishing the hopper quest (the one where you have to capture three cave hoppers). I am not talking about later in the game because i have not even started GMS compound quest. Its the early game that i am talking about.

This is from my experience of patch 1.09 with classic where i got to level 4 after the hopper quest but maybe in this patch 1.10 Styg has reduced the amount of experience gained. Maybe in later levels the oddity system would be faster/ equal to the classic system but early on the leveling feels really really slow.

I'm aware that there's a bit of a gap here. From my experience it is possible to be about 3.5 level when you enter GMS with the new system, but it's not the most obvious road. So I might add a few oddities in between to make sure players are not underlevelled when accessing that area.

[Omegakill]

Just trying the new version with a new build (melee only character) with the new experience style system, it does make you think more about picking your battles as the only thing you'll be doing is spending the durability on your armour although with the potential rewards of getting better items like leather to make better armour or even a heart to produce some sort of item using crafting it really makes you think that much more.

I really love the fact you've given the player a choice in terms of experience type and difficulty, it shows you are listening to the fans of the game and allowing them to make the choice rather than forcing it upon them.

Keep up the good work, how have you settled into your new office?

[Styg]

Just trying the new version with a new build (melee only character) with the new experience style system, it does make you think more about picking your battles as the only thing you'll be doing is spending the durability on your armour although with the potential rewards of getting better items like leather to make better armour or even a heart to produce some sort of item using crafting it really makes you think that much more.

I really love the fact you've given the player a choice in terms of experience type and difficulty, it shows you are listening to the fans of the game and allowing them to make the choice rather than forcing it upon them.

Keep up the good work, how have you settled into your new office?

Glad that you're enjoying the game. We settled well, thanks.

[Sakuragi]

So yeah i played a bit more. I just arrived at the junkyard and i am level 6 (1 more bar to level 7). Everything seems fine except the early quest where i said it feels really really slow to level (i.e until hopper quest). But from GMS onwards its awesome.

Hmm one quest is a bit weird the one where you need to find the lucky knife. There is no point in what so ever to return the knife. I do not know whats the reward in classic but in oddity better just take it for yourself and equip it. Its awesome good for me because i rarely use weapons and this knife gives 2 critical defence and has huge critical chance for those who want to use it.

[Agitated]

Beautiful

[catalinhotnog]

From the Underrail wiki i found out that items have relative quality : grey- low, white - normal, green - hight , purple - rarity and orange - artifact.
After the last update i found a rarity item - a Dragunov sniper rifle.Does anyone know other rarity or artifact ones?

soon i'll post a screenshoot with the wepon's details.

 

[catalinhotnog]

I found another one, but i don't know what to create with it.any sugestions?

[Styg]

I found another one, but i don't know what to create with it.any sugestions?

High level grenades.

[pr1mus285]

Initial thoughts. I like the oddity system. No longer is the path to success (where success = having maximum expiriance and items) to kill everything that moves. But sometimes I want to fight. Sometimes I like killing everything that moves. And it would be nice to get a little more than a bunch of items that I cant sell for the effort. What is that little more? maybe 1 kill = 1 oddity point. Maybe you recode the shop system, so there is more demand for looted items when you go pillaging. (shops start looking for more items you pick up off of bodies or somthing) Maybe you use your all knowing knowledge to come up with something exciting. New, but old. Or old but in a newish way. Kinda like this game you have created.

[Ivan Bajlo]

You can find oddities in remains also i.e. all gang members carry gang patch but its worth for single time only otherwise it would be nice exploit with quest which allows you to wipe out Scrappers almost with no risk.

Many animals also leave one at random.

[Eliasfrost]

I think it would be nice to have a sort of collection where you can view all the oddities that you have uncovered, they have interesting lore attached to them after all. Taking a look at all of the special stuff you've found also feels good.

[LazyMonk]

I think it would be nice to have a sort of collection where you can view all the oddities that you have uncovered, they have interesting lore attached to them after all. Taking a look at all of the special stuff you've found also feels good.

+1 to this.
Some are really funny too, like that book of the past about the future or something like that.
I cant recall correctly because there isn't a way to check what curiosities oddities have you
studied so far.

[JohnyCrown]

This is the first alpha I've played since 0.1.6.0 and I must say its starting to get better.  I played through the vast majority of this version and I want to break it down for you and give you the details on what my impressions are and any issues that I think could be addressed to make the game even better.  I always try to take an unbiased approach to this and focus on what would make the game better for the majority and thus gain the game more popularity and sales.   I've been behind this project since the beginning and am glad someone decided to make a game that I think has the potential to be even better than Fallout 1/2 and in some ways it already is. 

So anyway I played on normal difficulty and classic exp. gain.  In all honesty I personally don't care for the idea of the oddity system but I can see how you would extend to more players this way and think it was a good idea and having an option to choose is very player friendly.  Nice work here.  The normal difficulty seemed rough at times and had to reload many times in several situations.  The difficulty is a lot more balanced than it was in the earlier versions.  I still think it could use a little tweaking mostly in enemy HP.  They seem to have a ton of it and the fact that most human enemies use stimpaks raises that even more.  I suggest cutting HP down on all enemies with the exception of rathounds by a slight amount.  Maybe 5-10%.   It's not very fun to have to reload several times for one battle even with the best gear up to that point because it takes 3-5 rounds to kill one enemy and most of the outcome is seemingly based on the luck of the dice roll more so than tactics and gear.  I understand I could try easy mode and it would avoid that and during my next playthrough I probably will to see the difference.  Overall definitely better but could use some tweaking (very small) I think to make it more balanced in the players favor.

Amount of gained skill points, perks, and stats per level seems pretty good now.  It went too much in the players favor last time but now it makes it seem like you have to really think about what perk you're going to pick and where your skill points are going to go.  Very nice improvement here.  I would suggest and I think I read this somewhere to make the max level cap at 30-40 instead of 20.  Also suggest more perks, psionics, weapons, armor, and items which I assume will be added to eventually.  I can try to help you come up with some if you want and have a few in mind that I think would fit well in the game.  PM me if you want and we can discuss this. 

Didn't mess with crafting much in either playthrough but when I did mess with it it seemed like it went well.  The only drawback I saw was a slight discrepency between what could be crafted and crafting skill.  You really need to put buckets of points into the 5 disciplines of crafting to make any decent gear.  I think this needs a slight modification to make it a bit easier to craft better items.  Again haven't experimented with this much but that's what I could see when I did mess with it.

The new economy and barter system wasn't as bad as I thought it was on paper.  Trying it out it still felt pretty balanced for the most part.  My suggestion here is to make sure that more items are able to be sold.  There are some items that NO SHOPKEEPER ever wanted.  I think the vast majority of items should be able to be sold to someone at some point.  I do feel the system is still a little too restrictive in the sense that most shopkeepers buy very little.  Maybe instead of having a guy buying for example...3 firearms...2 vests....3 blueprints....Have that same guy buy 4 ranged weapons.....3 armors.....4 blueprints instead of restricting it to a strict type you can restrict it to a general type and slightly increase the number they want to buy.  I do feel the system is more tactical and I see why you implemented it but I think it could be a tad less restrictive while still keeping the idea you're going for with it.

I think the amount of quests could be increased slightly.  Not even much but maybe from beginning of Alpha to end maybe 3-4 more would have been about right.  This would increase the immersion in certain areas and increase play time in these areas. 

I think a map of some sort should be implemented.  Maybe even something simple like a radar type thing.  Have a special item that either has a rough sketch of surrounding areas you can download into another item or the notelog or have a radar type weapon that can read surrounding areas somehow.  Doesn't have to be a hand holding auto-map but something simple to track progress and locate areas you may have missed.

Graphics are good for what the game is and has that dark gritty feel.  Great atmosphere. 

Is the loot you get from boxes and shelves and such random?  If not I think it should be at least in most cases.  I also think every locked box etc. should have at least SOMETHING in them even if its 1 stygian coin.  Kind of disappointing to open locked stuff up and get nothing (well I guess you technically get the EXP it took to open it up).  I also think the amount of good items you get from boxes, shelves, etc. locked or not is abysmal.  Seems like you get more crafting parts and stuff that has little or no us instead of fully functioning things.  Upping quality find a bit I think would make it a little more exciting to get loot.  Seems most of the best stuff is had from killing human enemies and even then that's not always the case.

Can't think of anything else for the moment.  Overall the quality is definitely rising and is shaping up to being a very good game.  Keep at it and I wish you the best.  And congrats on the progress thus far. 

[Styg]

Thanks for the feedback, man. I agree with most of it.

- HP and, imo even more importantly damage, of the NPCs might need some tweaking and higher levels. I'm going to look into this after the energy shields are introduced since they will add a new dimension to combat and should boost player effective health pool considerably.

- If you have suggestions please post them on the suggestion forums. I read them all of them and I do sometimes borrow from them if I like the idea

- I think the crafting system is fine regarding requirements. Player will sometimes get components that are ahead of their skill, but I think that's also good motivation to keep playing. For most crafting skills, it's usually required that you max it out if you want to craft from stuff that you find, and I think that's fine. If I do some re-balancing here, it will probably be when the game nears completion.

- I intend to easy up the restrictions on merchants slightly with the next update and also to look into which item categories are currently not requested at all.

- I don't know about local map. I don't think there would be much value in it since you can just scroll around and see most of it easily anyway (especially on today's monitors). If I do end up implementing it, it will probably have more purpose than just looking at the terrain layout

- Loot is not completely random, it's separated by category (electrical components, firearms, meds, etc). We'll probably go through the maps once to make sure all the locked containers do. It wasn't my intention to troll anyone, it's just that when I was reducing the amount of loot in GMS and Depot A (it was insane before) I didn't pay attention to which containers are locked.