Dev Log 23: Expanding the Business; Balance Changes

Hey guys, here's an update on what's been happening since the Steam release.

It will be a while longer before a new version is ready, sorry. The reason for that is that I've been somewhat busy with trying to expand the business. The game did well enough on its Steam (pre-)release that I can now afford to hire some people now that will assist with content creation. Unfortunately, this means interviewing, office space hunting, taxes, logistics, and other stuff that's cutting into my development time. So while development is a bit slow until all this settles down, it will pick up pace and go even faster afterwards.

However, I did manage to add some more Lower Underrail areas and I also made a number of balance tweaks, bug fixes and the like:

• Changes
  • Players will receive better armor at the start
  • Added more meds, ammo and such to the starting areas
  • Reduced explosive barrel health to 1
  • AP cost of using light weapons (knives, pistols, SMGs or fist weapons) or unarmed attacks is reduced by 4% for every dexterity point above 5. This is very much subject to change depending on how it works out. I want to make high dexterity builds feel more rewarding and this is just the first step.
  • Dogs now have 50% chance to apply Tackle effect on hit (down from 100%)
  • Skill requirements for recycling items reduced
  • Item durability increased, particularly for higher level items. This will make it less profitable (hopefully not profitable in most cases) to repair them for sole purpose of selling them. Also, crafters will be able to recycle them for more scraps them previously since the amount of scraps gained is based on current and max durability of an item. Rate of item degradation should remain about the same
  • Mark 2 repair kits now fix 500 durability points (up from 400). Cost increased accordingly; repair kit crafting requirements and components remain the same
  • Durability span of items looted from slain enemies increased to 5%-50% (up from 5%-20%)
  • Bandits in the "package delivery quest" nerfed
  • Minimal stealth requirements (below which player is automatically spotted) reduced
  • Increased the amount of special ammo that can be found as loot
  • Reduced the cost of amuples and syringes
  • Reduced the amount of explosive required to craft traps (it's now same as grenade recipe)
  • Increased chemistry requirements of Hexogen explosive to 50 (up from 22). Secondary explosives difficulty modifier in grenade and mine blueprint increased to 125% (up from 100%). Mark 3 grenades/mines are now crafted from 1 hexogen and mark 2 are crafted from 2 x TNT instead of vice versa. Reasoning behind these changes is that crafting high level explosives was way too easy and allowed you to obtain grenades that were meant to be used against level 20 enemies as soon as level 7 if not earlier.
  • Player character will no longer obscure targets behind them when issuing offensive commands (such as attacking or invoking offensive abilities)
• Bug fixes
  • Exporting a character while trading window is open will no longer crash the game
  • Save/load window will no longer lose focus after deletion confirmation pop-up
  • Fixed the bug that would cause optional components to give different crafting requirements depending on order they are placed in
  • Galvanic vest added to random loot table (and hence the stores too)
  • Added missing female riot gear spritesheets (sorry ladies)
  • Fixed the bug that would cause the old man in GMS level 3 to repeatedly initiate dialog with you
  • Fixed the bug in Abram's questline where you could give Garren information you didn't actually receive
  • AP should now correctly be deducted when stacking up utility items during combat
• Other
  • Added transition error log; it will be generated in Documents\My Games\Underrail every time there's a transition error. This should help us pinpoint any remaining transition problems
  • Removed Media Player requirement by popular demand (you will no longer have to have media player windows feature installed in the next version of the game)