Game News Announcing Underrail: Infusion, a new standalone Underrail campaign

[Infinitron]

Okay, so does that mean I can finally play Underrail now? No more significant updates for the base game in the pipeline?

Read the entire post.

 

[Drowed]

The only bad news about this is that we'll probably only see this game released in 2023+ or something, I really doubt it will come out sooner. But we know almost nothing about it and it already seems incredible. I can't wait for the next updates!

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[epeli]

We've known since last year that Styg was working on a standalone Underrail expansion. The expansion is probably still years away, but as of today it has a name - Underrail: Infusion. By going standalone, Stygian can overhaul their aging engine without having to preserve backwards compatibility with the game's existent content.

Okay, so does that mean I can finally play Underrail now? No more significant updates for the base game in the pipeline?

It's not done yet but there shouldn't be any major additions left. Couple more content updates was the plan before they decided to start upgrading the engine for the next DLC.

we intend to release at least a couple more content updates. These updates will vary in size, but you can probably expect something comparable to [Core City factions update]. They will feature mostly minor quest changes, new items, couple new areas and possibly some moderate mechanical changes.

 

[Trash Player]

Seeing this is from Styg, the psionic change will likely decrease the peak power of psionics a good bit but increase the tedium by 3 folds, like timed hypo side effect. Just because.

 

[Fenix]

So, after month and half of absence of internet AND computer (fried HDD) (which can give me a tag "almost martyr" or "modern robinsone") I checked my beloved RPG Codex to see only Pathfinder's spam updates so my eye begant to twitch, as nothing interesting and useful happned.

Untill I saw these miracle news!

The only bad news about this is that we'll probably only see this game released in 2023+ or something, I really doubt it will come out sooner.

I really don't think so, it will be too long, really. 2021 maybe end of it, not 2023.

 

[HoboForEternity]

goodbye my best friend, Locus of Control AOE ability.

 

[Grotesque]

You already have my money.
After 440 hours in Underrail I reached the conclusion it is a good game.

 

[Fenix]

goodbye my best friend, Locus of Control AOE ability.

Wait what?

 

[HoboForEternity]

goodbye my best friend, Locus of Control AOE ability.

Wait what?

just assuming lol

 

[Goral]

I see that Styg is going King's Bounty route and is trying to produce as many Underrail games as he can before people start to get bored/fed up. I didn't even bother to pirate Expedition and unless Underrail: Infusion will bring some major changes and additions I doubt I will play this one either. IMO he should try something different at last (I remember that in one of the interviews he mentioned he had an idea for a completely different game) and then go back to Underrail. Fighting the same enemies for the nth time, using the same weapons and skills, etc. etc. can get boring pretty fast. And if suddenly we will get completely different enemies, skills and weapons it will only make Underrail world inconsistent. But hey, maybe he will pleasantly surprise me (although I doubt it).

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

I see that Styg is going King's Bounty route and is trying to produce as many Underrail games as he can before people start to get bored/fed up. I didn't even bother to pirate Expedition and unless Underrail: Infusion will bring some major changes and additions I doubt I will play this one either. IMO he should try something different at last (I remember that in one of the interviews he mentioned he had an idea for a completely different game) and then go back to Underrail. Fighting the same enemies for the nth time, using the same weapons and skills, etc. etc. can get boring pretty fast. And if suddenly we will get completely different enemies, skills and weapons it will only make Underrail world inconsistent. But hey, maybe he will pleasantly surprise me (although I doubt it).

Underrail was brilliant, but Expedition was uninspired.
Expedition was stylistically similar, but without the depth of story. The jetskis, are about as pointless as James Bonds invisible car. Introduce a "Cool" gadget, but not enough to carry a whole game and ultimately pointless.
And for this reason the essence of the main game never carried over into the sequel. I think for the game to continue successfully it needs to do what it did best - tell a story, whilst giving you the mechanisms to play it in a way that makes you part of the world. It did that so well.
Admittedly, improving on this is a lot of work and Styg may not have enough fresh ideas to move forward with.

 

[PrK]

Expedition is far from uninspired, it has some of the most interesting exploration in the whole game, the ruins of the long lost civilisation are expertly done to be as intriguing as befits the Underail world, not to mention even better visuals and characterisation than most of the main game. Some misses are there, sure, like the lack of extended usefulness of jet skis as you mentioned, the camp mechanics or the locusts, but overall the quality is top notch. And if Styg is up for it, making add-ins, add-ons and sequels for Underail is how you make that incline unscalable.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Expedition is far from uninspired, it has some of the most interesting exploration in the whole game, the ruins of the long lost civilisation are expertly done to be as intriguing as befits the Underail world, not to mention even better visuals and characterisation than most of the main game. Some misses are there, sure, like the lack of extended usefulness of jet skis as you mentioned, the camp mechanics or the locusts, but overall the quality is top notch. And if Styg is up for it, making add-ins, add-ons and sequels for Underail is how you make that incline unscalable.

Interesting that you rejected my viewpoint but didn't comment on what was my main point - the storytelling not keeping up with the original.

 

[Black Angel]

Fighting the same enemies for the nth time, using the same weapons and skills, etc. etc. can get boring pretty fast.

I can't deny the same enemies (in fact, I pretty much agree with you, and there has been A LOT of criticism in that regard), but 'same weapons and skills, etc. etc.'? Swords, spears, shotguns, and temporal distortion psi school, coupled with new feats, veteran feats, and specializations also added A LOT to character creation, development, and build archetype in general. I haven't tried the weapons myself, but from what I remember spear builds works wonderfully in general, there was no criticism that swords ended up as an over-sized knives/daggers, while shotguns got a lot of feats that was being experimented on by a lot of people (though I can't remember if there's much complaint against it). I've tried TM myself with a pure-PSI/stealth build, and it's fun to play around, also people mentioned it's good utility skills to invest on as any other build thanks to its versatility.

And if suddenly we will get completely different enemies, skills and weapons it will only make Underrail world inconsistent.

Why would it Infusion going to be a stand-alone expansions that takes place in an area that have completely nothing to do with the main game suddenly makes the world inconsistent?

Underrail was brilliant, but Expedition was uninspired.
Expedition was stylistically similar, but without the depth of story.

I don't get this. Expedition story is, for me, far better than the main story. The story itself might seem uninspired (expedition into an unknown, uncharted territory that happened to be ruins of some ancient civilization) but how they presented it this time, the writings, quest designs and C&C are obviously much better than the main game. The characters are also some of the most memorable, and for now I've seen the banter between Ladelman and Marcus and there's just nothing like it in the main game. The dialogue with the Ferryman is also deep, although it seems it's unfinished? And I'll never forget the revelation of who the Sormirbaeren really are.
Sure, some people didn't get too fascinated to go to what they perceived as some glorified fetch quests but what did you expect from a DLC that's literally named 'Expedition'? And some people also complained how there's too much loredumps in the terminals and archives, but it isn't like you can't progress without ignoring those loredumps. Just deliver the items and get paid.

The jetskis, are about as pointless as James Bonds invisible car. Introduce a "Cool" gadget, but not enough to carry a whole game and ultimately pointless.

I'm also not sure about this. The jetskis are obviously crucial to traverse the waters of the Black Sea. And depending on how much of an Al-Fabet you are, they're definitely important to haul all your loot, which would a LOT to plunder from the expedition.
And why should '*a* "Cool" gadget' carry a whole game? Is that the only thing that matters when there's a bunch of other stuff introduced with the expansion?

Expedition is far from uninspired, it has some of the most interesting exploration in the whole game, the ruins of the long lost civilisation are expertly done to be as intriguing as befits the Underail world, not to mention even better visuals and characterisation than most of the main game. Some misses are there, sure, like the lack of extended usefulness of jet skis as you mentioned, the camp mechanics or the locusts, but overall the quality is top notch. And if Styg is up for it, making add-ins, add-ons and sequels for Underail is how you make that incline unscalable.

Interesting that you rejected my viewpoint but didn't comment on what was my main point - the storytelling not keeping up with the original.

And why, pray tell, should the storytelling keep up with the original when this time they could do better - and they did? Or do you mean doing something in the Black Sea should affect how the main game plays out? Please elaborate.

 

[PrK]

Interesting that you rejected my viewpoint but didn't comment on what was my main point - the storytelling not keeping up with the original.

The storytelling has a different focus, and you could say it somewhat distracts from the overall pace of the game, but it is absolutely at least on par in quality. The depth you mention is certainly there, not even counting the number of lore reveals and the implications they may have on the main story, as a self-contained world the Black Sea has enough of it to at least not be compared unfavorably to the main game. Now, what you can argue is that it doesn't give you the same - mainly time related - freedom to delve in it, but the constraints being mostly sensible - abandoned ruins, hostile native population - it at least gives you the rationalisation.

 

[Xunwael]

At no point during the original game was I confused about what I needed to do. Only part I didn't enjoy was the final area feeling like kind of a grind, but maybe that was because I was getting burned out by that point.

In the black sea, I had no idea what I was doing at any point in time. Pretty sure they even stopped giving me missions after like the second place I explored. Ended up killing every living creature in the place, including all the pirates and all the natives, and nobody seemed to care very much. Encountered some interdimensional entity I couldn't kill in the tribal base, but didn't know what it was and couldn't talk to anybody about it. Somehow I stumbled my way into the sub and figured I needed to talk to the ferryman to drag it where it needed to go. Spent probably an hour trying to find him, more time than I spent navigating the mapless tunnels in the original game. Made it to the bottom of the sea, found a box and some monolith or whatever, then I left, returned the box, and it ended there. No idea what any of it was or why I should care. Like, yeah, I got the gist of it. Bad voodoo fucking with nth dimensions or whatever, but "bad voodoo fucking with the nth dimension or whatever" is a writing prompt, not a story in itself. Concluded the zone feeling like I missed out on most the story content despite completely exploring the zone. Whatever the game was supposed to do to pull me into it, it failed completely to do so.

Self-evidently, this is because I am a retard. But at least I'm un-retarded enough of a retard to still have managed to to enjoy the base game. So, I present my Lived Experience as Evidence that Expedition's story was worse.

 

[toro]

The good stuff:
- Temporal Manipulation feats,
- Dude quest,
- Some NPCs have good dialogues.

The neutral stuff:
- I don't hate but I don't love Jetskis either. Honestly I couldn't care less about them.
- Machete, Shotguns and Spears were not so interesting for me. They also require a ton of feats to work correctly which doesn't bode well for Underrail 1.5 or 2.0. It indicates that build paths might become foreclosed in the future. I don't know.

The bad stuff:
- The constant invasions from the natives which interrupt you from what you are doing. Using hidden timers in an open world game is not a good idea at all.
- Killing all the natives in order to stop the invasions was also a brilliant idea. Some armistice perhaps? Some Aegis reinforcements? No. Fuck that. Kill them all. In fact the best solution is to kill them as soon as possible without knowing why!
- Camp management is utter garbage. You can win all fights with natives but the camp state will get worse no matter what ... and at some point it will get destroyed.
- Someone mentioned the story. My question is: What story? Who Sormirbaeren really are!? Who cares. You have to kill them anyway. What's the idea then? Genocide is justified sometimes!? Also where is the faction based narrative?
- If there is a story then it's a complete unfocused mess ... and most quests look like this: go to location -> kill everything -> get MacGuffin -> report back.
- Honestly the entire background story is retarded: An entire company of people is unable to defend an island and one guy is suppose to explore the entire territory and also support them each time there is an attack from the natives!?
- There are better ways to create urgency in the main story but again, hidden timers are simply bad.
- Huge lore dumps between long combat sections which results in absolute no pacing for the "story" or whatever this DLC implemented.
- Imbecilic backtracking through very similar locations. Yeah, you can explore all 4 stations in any way you want but ultimately you will have to explore them in a specific order.
- The mobs variety is exquisite: Locusts, Crabs, Strongmen, Handmaiden ... and invulnerable ghosts.
- Non-existent encounter design. There is no subtlety, only tons of enemies.
- The DLC introduces super-natural elements. I really hate this shit. With passion.
- Sonocaster quest. Really? Thank God that weapon is not required to finish the game.

Bottom line: It's fair to call Expedition uninspired because it really is. Also it's very hard to enjoy it because of too many obtuse design decisions.

 

[Black Angel]

Pretty sure they even stopped giving me missions after like the second place I explored.

I'm not sure if you're actually trolling, but you just completely invalidated your entire argument with this.

- Machete, Shotguns and Spears were not so interesting for me. They also require a ton of feats to work correctly which doesn't bode well for Underrail 1.5 or 2.0. It indicates that build paths might become foreclosed in the future. I don't know.

What other builds don't require 'ton of feats' to work correctly? I'm pretty sure you need a combination of a lot of feats to actually make build 'work correctly'. Even both PSI-stealth and AR-Juggernaut builds needs a lot of feat to curbstomp the main game.

- Someone mentioned the story. My question is: What story? Who Sormirbaeren really are!? Who cares. You have to kill them anyway. What's the idea then? Genocide is justified sometimes!?

Well, I guess it all comes down to a matter of taste. If you just don't like exploration-based storytelling then we can't truly find a common ground in our discussion. It's not like I deny all the legitimately bad things that has been criticized in the DLC, but to completely dismiss the good things it did based on that is just... not very Codex, for me.

Also where is the faction based narrative?

Have you tried joining the pirates? What am I saying, based on your criticism as a whole I doubt you would ever bother making a second character or loading a save to try another route.

- If there is a story then it's a complete unfocused mess ... and most quests look like this: go to location -> kill everything -> get MacGuffin -> report back.

See, what are you guys expecting from a DLC literally named 'Expedition'? Does all the things you get to do in between all that, like figuring out what the fuck happened in all those ruins you explored, not matter if just a bit?

- Honestly the entire background story is retarded: An entire company of people is unable to defend an island and one guy is suppose to explore the entire territory and also support them each time there is an attack from the natives!?

If I'm allowed to address this from an objective perspective, it's because between the natives, AND the pirates, AND the muties, AND the creatures that roamed the Black Sea, can they really spare more resources to explore the entire region?

But there's one thing that has been bothering me the whole time and I guess it's time to elaborate on it. You're not the only one exploring the Black Sea, and the Expedition has what they call Recovery Team Alfa. Supposedly their missions brought them all over the places too close to the natives territory for only one man to do the job. And yet.... at no point in the entirety of the DLC do we (or rather, I) ever encounter them. At one point Chief Briggs said the RTA has finally arrived at the camp and is resting, but when I contacted them through the NavCom, I vaguely remembered they said they're on the way to the camp or something.
Hence, there's a glaring discrepancy here where the Joint Security Headquarter is literally *in* the natives territory, but the Expedition expected us to go there alone instead of with the help and co-operation of this Recovery Team Alfa.

- Huge lore dumps between long combat sections which results in absolute no pacing for the "story" or whatever this DLC implemented.

Once again, did they literally forced you to go through *ALL* this loredumps?

In case you're wondering, yes, I think loredumps are fine as long as players aren't forced to read them.

- Imbecilic backtracking through very similar locations. Yeah, you can explore all 4 stations in any way you want but ultimately you will have to explore them in a specific order.
- The mobs variety is exquisite: Locusts, Crabs, Strongmen, Handmaiden ... and invulnerable ghosts.
- Non-existent encounter design. There is no subtlety, only tons of enemies.
- Sonocaster quest. Really? Thank God that weapon is not required to finish the game.

That first point, I can't comment on it because I don't know how true is that since supposedly we can finish the DLC even if we're not part of a faction, while the rest I agree.

But this

- The DLC introduces super-natural elements. I really hate this shit. With passion.

Come on, man. What have you been playing all this time? Sure, the game explained that psionics are a result of mutation, but with stuff like the monolith, the Oculites, fucking Six being in the game, Dude's talk about the rift. The stuff in the DLC are literally explained by the main game, stuff like the Leviathans and the Godmen. If some void beings means supernatural elements to you, then man you must have hate the Oculus mainframe and Six with your guts. Though I'd guess people in general would hate Six anyway because of how he was so vague when first meeting him in the DC.

 

[toro]

- Machete, Shotguns and Spears were not so interesting for me. They also require a ton of feats to work correctly which doesn't bode well for Underrail 1.5 or 2.0. It indicates that build paths might become foreclosed in the future. I don't know.

What other builds don't require 'ton of feats' to work correctly? I'm pretty sure you need a combination of a lot of feats to actually make build 'work correctly'. Even both PSI-stealth and AR-Juggernaut builds needs a lot of feat to curbstomp the main game.

AR Builds are pretty much done at lvl 6 with Full-Auto.

We have Mechanical Pistols which absolutely suck balls in Dominating but you need just 2 feats to specialized on Energy Pistols or Chemical Pistols. I'm running such a build in another thread and it's working without 4 basic Pistol feats.

On the other hand, the new weapon-builds don't work without 6+ specific feats. See Swords with Flurry, Parry, Riposte, Ripper, Onslaught and probably 2 more feats. Because of this all Swords builds will probably be similar and foreclosed.

Honestly, I don't like the new retarded-proof streamlined build paths. There should be less weapon-specific feats and more multiple-weapons feats.

- Someone mentioned the story. My question is: What story? Who Sormirbaeren really are!? Who cares. You have to kill them anyway. What's the idea then? Genocide is justified sometimes!?

Well, I guess it all comes down to a matter of taste. If you just don't like exploration-based storytelling then we can't truly find a common ground in our discussion. It's not like I deny all the legitimately bad things that has been criticized in the DLC, but to completely dismiss the good things it did based on that is just... not very Codex, for me.

I like exploration-based storytelling however the lore dumps got out of hand compared to the vanilla game.

I don't deny good things but even good things must be delivered in a coherent manner. An incoherent narrative can lower the quality of the entire experience.

Also where is the faction based narrative?

Have you tried joining the pirates? What am I saying, based on your criticism as a whole I doubt you would ever bother making a second character or loading a save to try another route.

So, I guess people which don't want to join the pirates should be punished?

- If there is a story then it's a complete unfocused mess ... and most quests look like this: go to location -> kill everything -> get MacGuffin -> report back.

See, what are you guys expecting from a DLC literally named 'Expedition'? Does all the things you get to do in between all that, like figuring out what the fuck happened in all those ruins you explored, not matter if just a bit?

Unfortunately exploration for the sake of exploration is POINTLESS. The player's avatar has not skin in the game and it can fuck off to Core City anytime it wants.

On top of that you have an entire fake urgency mechanic (hidden doom timer) which add a lot of frustration for no reason whatsoever.

Exploring under unclear time limits is simply not fun. I just want the game to let me explore in peace.

- Honestly the entire background story is retarded: An entire company of people is unable to defend an island and one guy is suppose to explore the entire territory and also support them each time there is an attack from the natives!?

If I'm allowed to address this from an objective perspective, it's because between the natives, AND the pirates, AND the muties, AND the creatures that roamed the Black Sea, can they really spare more resources to explore the entire region?

But there's one thing that has been bothering me the whole time and I guess it's time to elaborate on it. You're not the only one exploring the Black Sea, and the Expedition has what they call Recovery Team Alfa. Supposedly their missions brought them all over the places too close to the natives territory for only one man to do the job. And yet.... at no point in the entirety of the DLC do we (or rather, I) ever encounter them. At one point Chief Briggs said the RTA has finally arrived at the camp and is resting, but when I contacted them through the NavCom, I vaguely remembered they said they're on the way to the camp or something.
Hence, there's a glaring discrepancy here where the Joint Security Headquarter is literally *in* the natives territory, but the Expedition expected us to go there alone instead of with the help and co-operation of this Recovery Team Alfa.

Like I've said before, the DLC background motivation makes no sense to me. There are too many things which are missing. Perhaps the DLC is really not finished and they were not able to implement their original plan.

- Huge lore dumps between long combat sections which results in absolute no pacing for the "story" or whatever this DLC implemented.

Once again, did they literally forced you to go through *ALL* this loredumps?

In case you're wondering, yes, I think loredumps are fine as long as players aren't forced to read them.

I agree to disagree. Lore dumps should be moderated somehow to make sure the player is motivated to explore more. In Expedition this doesn't happen: you have to kill everything and then you get a big lore dump. I don't know why it feels so unsatisfying.

But this

- The DLC introduces super-natural elements. I really hate this shit. With passion.

Come on, man. What have you been playing all this time? Sure, the game explained that psionics are a result of mutation, but with stuff like the monolith, the Oculites, fucking Six being in the game, Dude's talk about the rift. The stuff in the DLC are literally explained by the main game, stuff like the Leviathans and the Godmen. If some void beings means supernatural elements to you, then man you must have hate the Oculus mainframe and Six with your guts. Though I'd guess people in general would hate Six anyway because of how he was so vague when first meeting him in the DC.

Well, I was never a Psi fan anyway. Things like Force Field, Doppelganger and Locus of Control are completely broken.

I can except some Psi powers and I can also accept Dude's quest because it's done in a comic way and the game needs a quick traveling option

But ghosts and straight magic in a high-tech setting is somewhat too much for me and, to be honest, it lowers the quality of the setting in the same way the Talking Deathclaws lowered the consistency of Fallout's game world.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Black Angel]

AR Builds are pretty much done at lvl 6 with Full-Auto.

I don't know how true is that. I'd imagine you would want Suppressive Fire and Opportunist to maximize damage output, and obviously Concentrated Fire. And because Full Auto require 7 STR, might as well wear metal armors and to capitalize on that, take Juggernaut feat. Not to mention other supportive feats like Grenadier or Quick Tinkering if you want to be unorthodox and use traps.

Honestly, I don't like the new retarded-proof streamlined build paths. There should be less weapon-specific feats and more multiple-weapons feats.

Well, there's Versatility. But by multiple-weapon feats, did you mean multiple-weapon skills feats or feats where multiple weapons receive more or less the same benefits? Because I'm not sure how much it will impact the game as an RPG.
Hybrids are possible anyway, like stealthy-PSI-sniper, or unarmed-Psychokinesis-monk. Throwing were meant as supporting skill for the most part, and so does traps. And Temporal Manipulation is real solid supportive PSI school, useful literally for all build.

I like exploration-based storytelling however the lore dumps got out of hand compared to the vanilla game.

I don't deny good things but even good things must be delivered in a coherent manner. An incoherent narrative can lower the quality of the entire experience.

I think the problem here is the pacing, because from my personal experience there was no coherence issue. Don't you think it's the same with PS:T? Except the text and the loredumps of the Black Sea is obviously not for everyone, while the level design coupled with the encounter design completely botched its pacing and deliverance.

So, I guess people which don't want to join the pirates should be punished?

I'm not sure what you meant by this. I didn't join the pirates, though I admit I had to reload after finding out rescuing the Professor through stealthy approach resulted in the pirates attacking the camp (in addition to the natives) and my stealthy-PSI didn't invest in traps in preparation for doubled invasion.
So I reload, resolved the problem with the pirates by performing talk-no-jutsu and I don't feel punished at all.

Unfortunately exploration for the sake of exploration is POINTLESS. The player's avatar has not skin in the game and it can fuck off to Core City anytime it wants.

On top of that you have an entire fake urgency mechanic (hidden doom timer) which add a lot of frustration for no reason whatsoever.

Exploring under unclear time limits is simply not fun. I just want the game to let me explore in peace.

That's fair. But, is this what you mean by being punished for not joining the pirates?

I can't remember if camp invasion was ever up while I'm in the middle of exploring a ruin. Like, seriously, they only ever conveniently contacted me while I'm *on the way* to the next ruins or, better yet, *on the way* to the camp after done exploring. And never while I'm busy avoiding stonemen and handmaidens.

 

[toro]

... snip ...

There is no gain in spending energy on this.

The main idea is that there are valid reasons to criticize the Expedition DLC.

It's not far fetch to understand that some people are not thrilled with it.

That being said: I'm happy that it was released and Styg is working on Underrail 1.5.

 

[Xunwael]

Pretty sure they even stopped giving me missions after like the second place I explored.

I'm not sure if you're actually trolling, but you just completely invalidated your entire argument with this.

Last mission I remember doing was rescuing the scientist guy from the pirates. After that they stopped telling me to do stuff, and only occasionally made remarks as I dropped by with info until I eventually returned with the box. I remember spending ages trying to figure out how to increase their supplies or whatever (which presumably were important, since I traded off a bunch to the pirates to rescue the guy) without figuring it out and eventually just giving up on the whole thing. Pretty weird that we didn't get the supplies back once I killed all the pirates. Feel like after I did that I should be able to go back to the base and be like "hey bitches, I totes wiped out the pirates, yo. also, here's your supplies back, not that I have any idea what purpose they serve", but far as I could tell the only difference *any* of the killing I did made was that the scout chick up on the tower would report back lower levels of activity.

 

[Black Angel]

Last mission I remember doing was rescuing the scientist guy from the pirates. After that they stopped telling me to do stuff, and only occasionally made remarks as I dropped by with info until I eventually returned with the box. I remember spending ages trying to figure out how to increase their supplies or whatever (which presumably were important, since I traded off a bunch to the pirates to rescue the guy) without figuring it out and eventually just giving up on the whole thing. Pretty weird that we didn't get the supplies back once I killed all the pirates. Feel like after I did that I should be able to go back to the base and be like "hey bitches, I totes wiped out the pirates, yo. also, here's your supplies back, not that I have any idea what purpose they serve", but far as I could tell the only difference *any* of the killing I did made was that the scout chick up on the tower would report back lower levels of activity.

That's because when the pirates kidnapped the Professor, you're in the *middle* of a mission to investigate the some of the ruins deeper into the Black Sea territory. After you're done with that, there would be one last mission involving the [REDACTED]. In fact, iirc after rescuing the Professor he immediately briefed you on some more critical information not told at first, regarding the [REDACTED]

But yeah, the camp gameplay is just half-assed. The game implies that the Expedition would go to Core City by jetski to resupply from time to time, but the supplies never replenish.