Underrail, formerly known as Timelapse Vertigo

The new areas look great!

Underrail is one of the games I'm most looking forward to in 2015. I stopped playing these unfinished versions (after spending many hours playing the earlier versions), in order not to "spoil" my first full playthrough, but I can't wait to check out the final game. :)
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2015
Messages
97
Version 0.1.14.0 released

Hey guys, the last Early Access/alpha version is here. It's available on Steam now and, as before, it will be available on other platforms as soon as we stabilize it. We are proud to present to you the Institute of Tchort in all its glory, the final urban area of the game. If you want to know more about what's left on our development roadmap, check out the previous dev log.

Monolith.jpg


Speaking of changes, we made quite a bit of them, some of which are quite significant for certain play-styles, so we're looking forward to hearing the feedback on those. Of course, we also added lots of new stuff in terms of items and feats. Anyway here's the list (partial list, the other half is in the previous dev log):
  • Items
    • Added Flashbang blueprint
    • Added EMP grenades Mk II and Mk III
    • Rathound Regalia mechanical damage reduction changed to 20% (down from 25%) and all heat damage taken while wearing it increased by 100%
    • Burrower Burger, Eel Sandwich and Cave Hopper Steak now grant 1 point in their respective stats (down from 2)
    • Mushroom Brew no longe affects agility and preception and dexterity penalties changed to -2 (don from -3)
    • Consuming Mushroom Brew will now give you an empty bottle
    • Shock and incendiary bolts and acid blob traps mk III should no longer appear in shops or as random loot and mk II should now be quite rare
    • Healing from regenerative vests buffed; regenerative armors can no longer be recharged during combat
    • Finding psionic headband with an enhancement is now rare and you can no longer find one with two enhancements (you'll have to craft it)
    • Regular tactical vest visual model updated
  • Creatures
    • Added cats
  • Tweaks
    • Max player character level increased to 25
    • Base classic kill XP per target level increased slightly
    • Crafting requirements for components scaling with quality lowered to 80% of the original value
    • Removed composition difficulty from many optional component slots
    • Reduced the cost of firing energy pistols (not retroactive, just for new ones)
    • NPCs now use EMP grenades; you've been warned
    • Increased the range and max range of assault rifles; this will indirectly reduce burst imprecision (not retroactive)
    • Warhogs have been buffed
    • Dirty Rags now require 10 tailoring (down from 25)
    • Recycling stuff made of fabric will now also produce dirty rags
    • Pack hunting now also increases attack skill in addition to damage, so rathounds in groups will hit you more easily
    • NPCs will no longer attempt to disarm traps that are too hard for them
    • NPC suspicion bar now degrades very slowly over time (updated when you re-enter the area)
    • Explosive barrel damage increased
    • Slightly reduced the number of mutated dogs in Depot A
    • Muties and regular dogs no longer respawn in Depot A
    • Forcefield cooldown changed to 8 turns (down from 12)
    • Plasma Sentry no longer loses the rest of its turn when it switches back into mobile form
    • Crawler poison can no longer be refreshed, so having it applied multiple times will no longer delay the stuff
    • Reduced the fatigue effect duration after adrenaline expires to adrenaline duration + 1 turn
    • Bear trap weight halved
    • Toxic Gas grenades now apply “Contaminated” debuff which increases all damage taken
  • Feats
    • Requirements for various feats re-balanced
    • Shroomhead - feat disabled, pending redesign
    • Taste for Blood - now also grants a stack whenever you deal a killing blow regardless of whether the target had bleeding wounds or not
    • Power Management - changed to now always provide 35% extra energy capacity
    • Uncanny Dodge - You now dodge 2 + 1 extra attack per 30 dodge; cooldown changed to 6 turns (up from 3)
    • Spec Ops - now correctly only works with SMGs
    • Opportunist - now works with throwing knives as well
    • Thick Skull - Cannot be stunned, only dazed
    • Concentrated Fire - Each hit from from burst attack increases the damage from further burst hits by 10%. Stacks 10 times.
    • Commando - Killing an opponent using burst attack will grant you an extra free burst attack that can be performed in the same turn. This can only happen once every turn.
    • Pinning - Your throwing knives have 35% chance to pin living targets to the ground for 1 turn.
    • Fatal Throw - Throwing knives always critically hit against targets below 25% health. Killing a target with a knife throw will refund 18 action points.
    • Split Spare - When throwing knives you throw an extra one at a nearby target that's within the attack cone.
    • Ripper – Critical hit damage with knives and throwing knives increased by 1% for each 1% of the target's missing health. Applied multiplicatively to regular critical damage bonus.
    • Critical Power – For each 1% of weapon or unarmed critical damage bonus above 100%, you gain an additional 1.5% critical damage bonus
    • Expertise - Your non-critical firearm, crossbow, and melee attacks deal additional mechanical damage equal to your level.
    • Blitz - Grants you an ability that when invoked will instantly convert all your movement points to action points, granting you 1 action point for each 3 movement points. Cooldown 10 turns.
    • Point Shot - Grants you the ability to perform a quick pistol, SMG or assault rifle attack that costs 50% of the standard action point cost but has reduced precision. Cooldown: 1 turn.
    • Survival Instincts - Increases the chance to critically hit with weapons, unarmed attacks and psi abilities by 30% while under 30% health.
    • Stoicism - You receive 1% less damage from all sources for each 4% health missing.
    • Escape Artist - Grants you the ability to remove all immobilization effects. Cooldown: 2 turns.
    • Rapid Fire - Fire three bullets from any firearm except the sniper. Chance to hit falls drastically beyond optimal range.
    • Juggernaut - Total health increased by 25% while wearing armor with armor penalty of 50% or higher.
    • Fast Metabolism - All healing increased by 50% and psi boosters restore extra 25 psi.
    • Heavyweight - You add your total armor penalty to the critical damage bonus of sledgehammer, fist weapon and unarmed attacks.
    • Super Slam - An attack with a sledgehammer that does normal damage plus 20% of attacker's maximum health. Cooldown: 3 turns.
    • Sure Step - You can safely navigate caltrops and puddles of acid.
    • Guard - You have 50% chance to block melee mechanical damage equal to twice your strength.
    • Deadly Snares - Your crossbow attacks always critically hit against targets caught in bear traps and acidic entanglements.
    • Gun Nut - Increases the upper damage range of all firearms you create by 20%.
    • Skinner - The quality of leathers counts as if 20% higher in all your crafts.
    • Armor Sloping - Reduces the armor penalty originating from metal plates when crafting armor by 35% (multiplicative).
    • Clothier - The quality of fabrics counts as if 20% higher in all your crafts.
    • Mad Chemist - On-hit effects of chemical pistols you create are twice as strong.
    • Weaponsmith - Knives and sledgehammers that you create have 5% higher critical hit chance.
    • Practical Physicist - Critical damage bonus of energy weapons you create is increased by 25% (additive).
    • Ballistics - Carrier vests give additional 3 mechanical damage threshold when you use them in crafting.
    • Neurology - Psi Headbands you create also provide additional 15 maximum psi points.
  • UI
    • Items will no longer get equipped when you double click them while holding ALT or CTRL (so you can rapidly alt-click transfer stuff now)
    • Interface will no longer register single clicks as double clicks if they are fired rapidly after a double click
    • Fixed the slowdown that occurred when opening quest notes once you've got a lot of notes in there; also fixed weird spacing issues in that window
    • Added scroll bar to crafted item view
  • Bugs
    • Game will no longer crash when you return to the secret hideout of a secret organization in a certain place
    • The electro room in the Gauntlet crash fixed
    • Fixed the bug that caused the level up to cancel without allowing you to restart it when pressing ESC when confirmation dialog appears and then again after that
    • Fixed the bug that caused the respawning creatures not to respawn when loading an autosave
    • TNT charges will now trigger explosive traps and other similar objects in their blast radius
    • Fixed the bug that caused melee special attacks to have their visual and sound effects trigger at the beginning of the animation instead of at the moment of impact
    • Arena enemies will no longer turn their shields off before combat like idiots
    • Fixed the bug that sometimes caused bandaging to abort if you were right on the minimal health limit
    • You can no longer drop things into a standard container without opening it
    • You can no longer burst people who are not in the same area. For example, using burst while fighting in arena and bursting people below it, thus being branded a witch and sentenced to death
    • Fix the bug that caused Telekinetic Proxy to not clone your abilities if it was positioned just to the side of the target
    • Guard at Epione Lab will no attack you after letting you pass in certain situations
    • You will now always be able to exit Holloway's dialog
    • Other various quest and dialog bugs

That's all for now folks. Enjoy the last alpha update and let us know how you like the new stuff, as well as the gameplay changes we made. We're off now to work at the last bit of the game and, hopefully, come summer, we'll have the full release ready.

Cheers!
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
125
Version 0.1.14.0 released

Hey guys, the last Early Access/alpha version is here. It's available on Steam now and, as before, it will be available on other platforms as soon as we stabilize it.

I almost cant wait to play this one when it is done.
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
1,747
Location
The Netherlands
Housing; New Psi; Deep Caverns Preview

Hey guys, we've been a bit quiet lately, but that's only because we've been keeping our heads down and working hard on the last chunk of content for the game - the Deep Caverns. There's still a lot to do before we can show it in its full glory, but here's a little teaser screenshot below.

Also, we implemented player housing. Players will now get an old ruined apartment in Core City which they can fix up and furnish to their liking. Most of the stuff you can get for the house is just for show, but there is some useful equipment as well.

DeepCaverns.jpg


LivingRoom.jpg


In other news:

  • UI
    • Added Oddity catalog window that will show all the oddities you've collected and also how many oddity types you're still to find
    • You can now open system menu during the NPC turn (to load or exit the game or configure options)
  • Psi
    • Added the remaining nine psi abilities, three for each psionic school.
    • Psychokinesis
      • Electrokinetic Imprint - Places a hidden electrokinetic imprint on the ground that deals electrical damage and stuns the first creature to step on it. Only one imprint can be active in an area at a time.
      • Disruptive Field - Creates a disruptive field around the target that reduces their chance to hit with ranged and thrown weapons.
      • Implosion - Deals mechanical damage equal to a percentage of target's current health. This attack bypasses damage threshold and shields.
    • Thought Control
      • Psi-cognitive Interruption - Burns target's psi points, dealing damage equal to a percentage of psi burned and also applies psi inhibition which prevents the target from invoking psi abilities or regenerating psi
      • points.
      • Mirror Image Pseudo-spatial Projection - Projects additional copies of yourself in the immediate vicinity that travel with you. Each time you are attacked by a weapon or unarmed attack there's a chance that the attack will hit a copy instead, removing it. Machines and true-sighted attackers cannot be fooled by this mind trick.
      • Neurovisual Disruption - You disappear from the sight of the target, removing its ability to detect for 1 turn, and immediately enter stealth. Target also has its perception reduced by 5 and detection by 50% for 5 turns. Likewise, does not work on machines or true-sighted enemies.
    • Metathermics
      • Cryokinetic Orb - You launch a large frozen orb which shatters on impact, sending ice shards flying in all directions. Each shard deals cold and mechanical damage and chills the target. Due to shards fanning out, targets closer to the place of impact may be hit with up to multiple shards, while those farther away might not be hit at all. Each shard has 50% chance to inflict a bleeding wound that does additional 100% of the original mechanical damage done.
      • Exothermic Aura - Makes you immune to heat damage and generates flames around you and in your wake. Flame generation stops one turn before the aura expires, giving you the opportunity to flee your inferno.
      • Cryo-shield - Creates a number of frozen shards around the invoker. Each time the character suffers a melee attack, there's 50% chance that one of the shards will block some mechanical damage and be destroyed in the process.
  • Tweaks
    • 95% damage cap now only applies to mechanical resistance
    • Damage from flames reduced (includes firebombs and other sources of environmental fire)
    • Crawler AI improved
    • Destructable rocks can now also be destroyed with a jackhammer
  • Bugs
    • Flat dodge and evasion bonuses are now always reduced by armor penalty
    • Suppressive fire will now count as a slow for purposes of opportunistic attack
    • Inanimate objects no longer appear scared of fire
    • Mental Breakdown duration can now be lessened through resolve
    • Gun Rush status effect now has proper icon
    • You can no longer skin Azif
    • Rapid Fire feat description now correctly notes the cooldown
    • Metal strider boots will now also have stealth penalty like the leather ones
    • Fixed the bug that caused character to lost health from attacks that deal no damage when using items/feats that grant health bonuses
    • You will no longer sound like a tin man after dismounting the Dreadnought
    • Fixed the bug that caused auto-trade option to trade money for money
    • Burst attack will no longer consume an extra bullet

That's all for now folks. We still have work ahead of us with new content, some gameplay balancing and tweaking, and then finally polishing the game, especially the old areas. I know some of you are really impatient to get your hands on the final release, but please don't ask me for the release date. I don't know and I don't even particularly care at this point. All I can say is it will be out this year definitively! One thing that we do know is exactly what needs to be done, by each of us in the team, for the game to be all it's meant to be at the release, and every day we hammer away at it. So stay patient, dudes.

We'll drop the next dev log when we have more of Deep Caverns to show.
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
125
Styg, I was finally able to sort out my original purchase (Desura), but it won't allow me to update my Alpha or download any of the recent updates. Do I need something extra for that?
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,806
Location
Australia
Styg, I was finally able to sort out my original purchase (Desura), but it won't allow me to update my Alpha or download any of the recent updates. Do I need something extra for that?

What do you mean?

If you're downloading it through Desura's installer, you just need to get the latest version (0.1.14.2) and you're good to go.

If you're running the stand-alone installer, it's automatically the latest version.
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
125
When I try to download on Desura it says game is not yet available even though it shows up in my purchased games.
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,806
Location
Australia
When I try to download on Desura it says game is not yet available even though it shows up in my purchased games.

Can you not just click on Alpha EXE Installer on the right side of the web page and download it?

Also, a thing to note is that Desura is having some financial/organization troubles as of late (google it up), so this might be a consequence of that.
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
125
Quick Update

Hey guys, this is just going to be a quick update to let you all know we're still alive and working on the last segment of the game - the Deep Caverns. Much has been done, but there's still a considerable amount of work left. It's hard to reveal much about the area without spoiling the surprise of various challenges that will be presented to the player, but here's, at least, a slide show of couple of screenshots with some Deep Cavern music to set the mood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFuWXk2E9SM
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
125
Thanks for the update :)

This remains one of the most impressive games I've played by such a small team.
 
Noise System; Vacation

Hey guys, while the rest of the team is working on wrapping up the remaining content (a few obligatory teaser screenshot included below), I took the time to work on some of the last game mechanic stuff to be implemented.

DC2.jpg


DC3.jpg


DC4.jpg


Most importantly, I implemented a noise system so the player will now have to consider more than just visual perception when handling a hostile area. This system works in a simple manner - certain actions, mostly relate to combat, such as firing weapons, grenade explosions, etc now emit a certain level of noise that travels through the map, with walls and other obstacles dampening their propagation (with certain thick walls doing so drastically). This will cause certain weapons - crossbows, knives and silenced pistols (and to lesser extent sledgehammers), will now have an edge over other weapon types when doing a stealth assassination.

In addition to this, a lot of NPCs will now holler for help on their turn if they are not stunned or incapacitated, so it's important to dispose of them quickly and silently if you want to avoid fighting the whole camp.

These changes will undoubtedly make some encounters more difficult so we will go through most problematic of them to make sure they are not too ridiculous.

In other news:
  • Mechanics
    • Added hard difficulty (less player health, less healing with longer cooldown)
  • UI
    • Pathfinding estimation during turn based combat no longer show the path once it gets into the undisovered part of the map
    • Added an option to automatically overwrite saves
    • Numeric pad cannot be used for dialog choices
    • You can now properly target items in your action bar, quick bar, weapon and shield switch buttons (e.g. for recharging, reloading, etc)
  • Items
    • Cryogas grenade added
    • Added one more acid type
    • Added five new drugs
    • Added two new poisons
    • Added silencer enhancement that can be added to 5mm pistols and SMGs
    • Added Biohazard suit
  • Creatures
    • Added two new Faceless types
    • Added five new creatures
    • Added one new turret
  • Feats
    • Changed Premeditation - Now also requires 6 intelligence.
    • Changed Gun Nut - Upper damage bonus changed to 15% (down from 20%).
    • Changed Gunslinger - AP reduction changed to 2 (down from 3) and only applies to firearms now.
    • Changed Opportunist - Bonuses changed to 25%/15% (down from 35%/20%)
    • Changed Recklessness - Critical damage chance bonus changed to 7% (down from 10%)
    • Changed Cerebral Trauma - Damage bonus changed to 20% (down from 25%) and psi burn changed to 10% (down from 15%)
    • Changed Quick Tinkering - Cooldown changed to 2 turns (down from 3).
    • Changed Steadfast Aim - Bonus crit chance per AP cost changed to 0.5% (down from 1%)
    • Changed Mental Subversion - It now stacks up to 75% (up from 50%)
    • Changed Snipe - Fixed the bug that caused the attack not to do those base 100% of damage in addition to bonus damage and also changed the bonus damage per stealth point to 1.5% (up from 1%). Feat description also now displays exact numbers. Also now requires 30 stealth to obtain.
    • Changed Sharpshooter - Damage changed to 30% (down from 50%).
    • Changed Special Tactics - Dexterity requirement removed.
    • Added Meditation (Continue from Tranquility) - Maximum psi points increased by 25.
    • Added Psionic Mania - (Continues from Psychosis) When activated makes your next offensive psi ability an automatic critical hit. Activating this will remove up to 15% of your health, but cannot kill you.
    • Added Neural Overclocking - Critical damage bonus of psi abilities increased by 30%.
    • Added Psychostatic Electricity - When you damage a target with your electrical psionics you apply a debuff that increases the chance for the target to be critically hit from all sources by 5% for 2 turns. Stacks 5 times.
    • Added Telekinetic Undulation - When you damage a living target by moving your telekinetic proxy, there's 50% chance it will be dazed for 1 turn.
    • Added Corporeal Projection - All telekinetic damage increased by 5% for each point of strength above 5.
    • Added Elemental Bolts - Increases electrical, acid and heat damage of all special bolts by 100%.
    • Added Concussive Shots - When you deal mechanical with your crossbow you have 40% chance to daze living targets for 1 turn.
  • Tweaks
    • Cryokinesis and Pyrokinesis can no longer be launched through fences and other partial obstacles
    • Resolve and fortitude base resist chance increased slightly
    • Upper Tornado crossbow damage slightly reduced (not retroactive)
    • Electrical pistols now only have 50% chance to trigger the stun on the initial target; this might also affect some electrobolts fired by the NPCs as well
    • Pistol damage reduced by ~20% across the board
    • Stalkers in the passages near SGS no longer respawn
    • Psi Empathy feat will now reduce base health points by 25%
    • Psi regeneration now scales with will and intelligence: psi regen = 5 + (will+int)/2
    • Ranges of a number of psi abilities have been reduced: Bilocation - 7, Cryostasis - 6, Electrokinesis - 8, Frighten - 3, Mental Breakdown - 5, Neural Overload - 6
    • Psi costs of a number of psi abilities have been modified (mostly increased): Cryokinesis - 15, Cryokinetic Orb - 40, Cryostasis - 65, Electrokinesis - 35, Exothermic Aura - 40, Forcefield - 25, Mental Breakdown - 60, Neural Overload - 15, Pyrokinesis - 40
    • Psi booster cooldown changed to 3 turns (down from 6 turns)
    • Metal plates enhancement will now provide less mechanical resistance
    • Metal armor mechanical and energy resistance reduced across the board. Threshold remains the same. Not retroactive.
    • Reinforced Fabric Ballistic Panel damage resistance reduced slightly
    • Execute can no longer be preformed with electrical pistol. I cannot remove the bonus damage from electrobolt jumps easily without rewriting a good chunk of code so I'm just going to ban the electrogun from the club.
    • Throwing knives upper damage range reduced
    • Blob Pistol shooting sounds changed
    • Increased crossbow max range by 2 and optimal range by 1 (not retroactive)
    • Daze debuff now also reduces movement points by 30
    • Sniper damage increased by ~20% across the board.
    • Plasma sentry laser damage increased
    • Made energy core and firearm barrels more easily available from merchants
    • Armor penalty of boots reduced (not retroactive)
  • Bugs
    • Spiked boots will no longer double-trigger things like force emission and fancy footwork
    • Taser will no longer consume twice the energy
    • Taste for blood will no longer grant a stack when killing machines
    • Hopefully fixed all achievements to work correctly
    • On kill effects will now properly trigger when target is killed by an on hit effect (such as electrical melee weapons, force emission and special bolts)
    • Fixed the bug that caused the game to on rare occasions skip the player's turn
    • Premeditation no longer increases the range of pyrokinetic stream (that caused it to bug out).

    That's all for now. Concerning the content - there's just one "biome" in Deep Caverns to be done before the "final event" in the game, but after that, as I mentioned before, we have to go back and rework some old areas and sprinkle a bit more flavor across the world.

    Before we can do that, however, we'll need to recharge our batteries for the next three weeks by ditching our underground coding facilities and getting some Mediterranean sand in our toes (at least in my case). In the meantime, let us know how you like these changes.
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
125
I'm looking forward to the final product Styg. :thumbsup:

I see the Steam price is only $9.99 for Early Access. Are you going to keep it at that price when it's finished? Imo, it's too good to be that cheap.

Enjoy your vacation. :)
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,130
Location
Florida, US
Based on my experience with it, it's easily worth several times that price.

That said, the visuals might be a turn-off for some people, and I think it makes sense to set the barrier of entry somewhat low.

But I've never sold a game in my life, so I really don't know ;)
 
Bought the game yesterday and played for a couple of hours last night. Having a blast so far, was hard to put it down :)
 
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
347
Back
Top Bottom