Dev Log #71: New Year's Resolution

Hi guys,

Today we're releasing our last major free content update for Underrail. It's been just a bit over six years since the full release of the base game, and I think that's a nice and round number to rest at. After this we're going to transition to working at about 95% of our collective capacity on our next project known under codename Infusion. You can see what's this project about and follow its development here: stygiansoftware.com/infusion. We should start posting dev logs there more regularly soon.

However, this does not mean that we're completely done with this game. We intend to support it as long as we exist as a company and also periodically release small content updates which will mostly feature mechanical tweaks, as well new items and abilities. We have quite a robust system for creating interesting items at this point, which we intend to use to further extend Underrail's playstyle catalogue so to speak.

Also we have some bigger features planned for the future, such as better adapting the game's UI and controls to Steam Deck, creating tools for community translation projects, potentially porting the game to other platforms, and more.

Another distinct possibility is an additon of a small paid DLC for Underrail, as there are some substantial gameplay mechanics that we initially planned to add in the second DLC (following Expedition), but were left in a state of limbo after we decided to move onto Infusion instead.

Exactly when any of these things will come about, I do not know. They will mostly require me to spend my programming time on them, which I will not have much to spare as Infusion is going to occupy most of it in the coming years. So don't expect rapid progress in any of the things mentioned above.

Before I hit you with all the bullet points, here's an important notice: due to the nature and quantity of changes made, the update will first be deployed onto the Experimental branch.

To play experimental branch on Steam, you right click the game in your library and go to "Betas" tab. Make sure you don't override all your live version saves just in case something goes horribly wrong.

Now, without further ado, here's the list of changes and additions that come with this update, minus the secret stuff, of course:

MAJOR STUFF

• Implemented, new slightly visually touched up, UI that is available in 3 sizes; classic UI still available
• The game will now automatically be zoomed on higher resolutions (which can then be changed through manual zooming if it's enabled)
• Introduced a brand new Core City questline as an alternative to joining an oligarch
• Improved nearly all unique and some rare weapons and armor - go check them out
• You can refurbish your old world firearms at one of the firearm enthusiasts
• Characters can now save up to 10 action points at the end of their turn and add those to their next turn
• Base ability values are no longer capped at 20, but instead the maximum bonus on top of the base value that you can accumulate is 10

UI

• Implemented borderless windowed display mode
• Item's special abilities/attacks will now have icon in the item's tooltip next to the description
• Fixed character's speech bubble and health bar offsets when zoomed in
• Zooming step changed to 25% (down from 50%)
• Added an option to follow the player character (default hotkey: F3). This is kind of an experimental feature, so be sure to let me know if you discover any bugs

Feats

• Opportunist - description now specifies it only works against living targets
• Pummel - will now list the action point cost
• Fend - Base action point cost changed to 60% of normal attack ap cost (down from 100%)

Specializations

• Fend: Action Point Cost - Ap cost reduction per point changed to 8% (down from 10%)

Items

• Item effects (such as poisons and gun oil) will now display a small icon in the corner of the parent item
• You can now use poisons to coat suitable melee weapons if you have the required Biology skill level; the poisoned weapons will then apply that poison in a certain number of attacks; you can coat a weapon with only one poison at a time
• Added Sharpening Stone - Can sharpen a bladed melee weapon, increasing its damage by 10% for the next 30 strikes, but permanently reducing its max durability by 5%
• Added Firecracker Cap item enhancement that can be applied to sledgehammers and crowbars to cause an explosion on the next hit
• All-in now decreases intelligence by 3 instead of increasing it
• Commando Belt moved to static loot
• Frogfish biology requirement changed to 50 (up from 25)
• Add a new unique spear and sword that can be found before going to Black Sea

Ammo

• W2C bullets now ignore 35%-45% of mechanical damage resistance depending on bullet caliber (down from fixed 65%), threshold interaction remains he same
• 5mm Shock Round - Damage changed to 8-15 (up from 5-10) and now has 3% chance to daze target for 1 turn
• 7.62mm Micro-shrapnel Round - The damage that penetrates the armor is increased by 25% against organic targets
• 8.6mm Incendiary Round - Now also deals 10-20 heat damage on impact
• 9mm Acid Round - Acid damage changed to 15-30 (up from 10-20)
• .44 Explosive Round - Heat and mechanical explosion damage changed to 23-45 (up from 15-30)

Crafting

• Steel and tungsten plates requirement is now capped at 30 mechanics when crafting bullets
• W2C Bullets blueprint now requires hexogen instead of raw tnt and produces 20 bullets (down from 30)
• JHP Bullets blueprint now produces 20 bullets (down from 30)
• Changed enriched health hypo critical chance to 10% (up from 5%)
• Large intestine biology requirement changed to 45 (down from 50)
• Taurine biology requirement changed to 45 (down from 50)
• Anglerfish biology requirement changed to 90 (down from 100)
• Fusing Enzyme biology requirement changed to 90 (down from 100)

Quests/Zones/NPCs

• Increased t-boss health on dominating difficulty, and his damage resistance on all difficulties
• Expanded upon Motion and Motioners; this drug is now both better and worse
• You can now bring Gorsky high-quality energy shields from other sources as an alternative to raiding Port Zenith
• Added an agility check that allows you to climb up and down between the Caerus Residential Block square and SW building second floor
• Added fireplaces to certain locations in Deep Caverns
• Added a hacking check to Cytosine Outpost storeroom
• Added more hydraulic fluid canisters to Deep Caverns
• Certain gate components can now be found at multiple locations in Deep Caverns
• You can now use electronics skill to optimize Arke power plant turbine output for more total power
• A certain important encounter with the Faceless will now feature some of them having their infusions active from the start (only on Dominating difficulty)
• Added an extra Thought Control check to the DC mindreading that allows the player to conceal his mischievous behavior
• You can now bring super steel refining data to Bernard in order to improve the quality of super steel plates; also raised the max quality from 160 to 180 for players who have Expedition installed
• Leonie will now offer the Infused Leather blueprint as soon as you show her you have super steel plates (currently you have to do the melting process with Bernard first)
• You can turn metal scraps into low-quality steel plates at Leonie's
• Added more ways to learn about a certain Foundry arms merchant
• Added more entries to the super secret organization database, and placed some of the existing ones behind higher access levels
• Added more options to save Maura
• You can now borrow (or "borrow") AK from Kokoschka
• Becket now also offers psi inhalants alongside psi boosters when giving you your equipment package
• Added Underrail Express tickets which can be pickpocketed from NPCs and used for a single ride
• New models and portraits for Jon the Beautiful, Sergio the Wizard, and some super secret folks
• New random events, some of them seasonal, and some related to the player's house
• Introduced Jookhela's drawing skills to the world
• Increased requirements for achieving Brutalizer/Brutalette gladiator nicknames, so they shouldn't be so predominant now
• The Black Crawler now drops an oddity item when killed
• New entries in the Institute of Tchort library, some of which contain blueprints and will require a special card
• New skill checks for Octavia, Vuk and Kiro that will unlock certain items for trading
• Naval mines will now be heard detonating in the distance when someone attacks the camp
• Added ways to break yourself free from a certain man's mechanical grasp
• Added certain dialog options to Doc Savage and Marcus that were only available through navcom

Tweaks

• Optimized faction data relations serialization which should improve save/load times of mid and late game savegames somewhat
• Fixed the pathfinding prioritization to prevent player from getting stuck in place when a lot of NPC pathfinding is taking place
• Being in turn-based mode will now count as being in combat for purpose of changing equipment

Bugs

• Game will no longer accept mouse clicks in windowed mode when the game window is not focused
• Fixed the bug that would cause the carried weight to not immediately update when consuming/expending items in a stack
• Pseudo-spatial Projection will now properly affect Spear Throw
• Fixed the bug that allowed some items to make the player's mechanical resistance sometimes exceed the normal limit
• Fixed the bug that cause the item tooltip to not correctly indicate which effects are unavailable due to unmet requirements when the item is not currently equipped
• Fixed the bug that would cause Bone Breaker to trigger irrespectively of the amount of damage dealt
• Negative effects of equipped items will now still properly apply even if you do not meet the item requirements
• Fixed the bug that would cause assault rifle burst attack and pistol rapid fire to calculate each burst hit with the wrong bullet from the magazine (it was offset by 1)
• Fixed the bug that would cause the Needler's Piercing Shot to hit the pass-through targets twice
• NPCs will now properly use crossbow to fire special bolts instead of switching weapons when they are out of regular bolts
• You can no longer trigger Escape Bonds when you're completely encumbered
• Plasma Beam will now properly hit all targets in the target tile (the ones highlighted when targeting)
• Fixed the bug that caused psi beetles to try to neural overload force fields
• Fixed some esoteric explosion bugs
• You can no longer climb a certain ladder before releasing the very, very bad gas in an under-passages hideout (unless you kill the person supervising you)
• Captain Rastko will no longer charge double for a single ride
• Fixed the Green Galaxy furniture set not appearing when switching between it and other bought sets
• Fixed not being able to report Newton's death if he was killed in certain ways
• Attacking Jack Quicksilver will now properly register who attacked him and will not instead be attributed to the player for certain quest purposes
• Killing Vivian at a certain location will now fail the quest and prevent the player from doing certain things which might get them permanently stuck
• Spear guard triggered from spear attacks will now properly replace a more powerful existing spear guard effect if the latter is about to expire
• Spear throw will now destealth the thrower after the throw instead before
• Fixed Improved Naval Combat checking for effective instead of base Agility value in Razor's dialog
• Fixed a bug which in certain cases prevents players from sleeping in the camp bed more than once
• Fixed Aran not despawning when he should in certain cases
• Fixed Ferryman being stuck in the "I'm moving out." phase and not wanting to talk to the player
• Fixed Dude sometimes not having certain dialogue options when waiting for the player to find something important in his cave home
• Fixed Briggs getting stuck at the "Shouldn't you be looking for a microchip implant?" line in certain very specific instances
• Fixed Professor Oldfield not following you when he should
• Fixed receiving certain NavCom messages if you stole/looted it but never joined the expedition
• Fixed being able to sail across certain cliffs in the Mutie Refuge zone
• Fixed wrong closing sounds for one type of Lemurian boxes
• Fixed infinite Black Eel jet skiers bug

Let us know how you like the additions and changes.