Underrail: Infusion pre-release megathread

[Abu Antar]

Shut up and take my money bre

Hajde.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Anybody who isn't excited about this is a fucking pipeworker.

 

[Takamori]

I keep throwing my wallet at the screen and nothing happens...
Anyway been following styg on twitter, he show some progress from time to time. The kill animations looks juicy as fuck. Hope he can implement some metal shit for death animations.

 

[MerchantKing]

I'm disappointed by the 3d graphics though. They should at least resemble the sprites of the original.

EDIT: Oh yeah... And we should get playable midgets too. Midgets that are good at merchandising, chemical warfare with hallucinogens, and thought control psi.

 

[Ol' Willy]

EDIT: Oh yeah... And we should get playable midgets too. Midgets that are good at merchandising, chemical warfare with hallucinogens, and thought control psi.

They return

 

[Hydro]

They should at least resemble the sprites of the original.

While I agree, it already looks much better than what we generally have with modern 3d copy-paste engines

 

[ciox]

ClassicChads WILL HAVE THEIR VOICES HEARD.

 

[Zariusz]

Hmm classic exp for combat stuff, oddities for everything else?

 

[toro]

Hmm classic exp for combat stuff, oddities for everything else?

No. Oddities is the better system.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Looks awesome. Can we expect a variety of death animations Fallout-esque?

Also EA when? I am ready to throw money at this

Yes, we have the tools to make interesting death animations this time around.

EA is likely, but I cannot say when it might start, we're still some ways off.

You can expect the (visible) development to pick up from this point as I'm pretty much done with reworking all the fundamental features of the engine now.

Is it an original engine or it is based on some third party engine like Unreal or Unity?

 

[Zariusz]

Hmm classic exp for combat stuff, oddities for everything else?

No. Oddities is the better system.

Generally compared to classic system i agree, it really rewards exploration. Still i think that searching the trashbins for oddities to get skillpoints for weapon usage is quite silly. That is why i prefer AoD skill system.

 

[ciox]

Hmm classic exp for combat stuff, oddities for everything else?

Well, what he said is that it's a new system that is "the best of both worlds".

Such a system should try to solve problems the original systems had:
- Oddity: you could choose to make a barbarian style character, who can then go through some of the game's toughest battles and get barely or no XP
- Oddity: you can overcome whatever challenge, and if designers forget to attach an oddity to it specifically then there is no reward
- Classic: farming XP is possible even if it takes a lot of time
- Classic: killing stuff in big battles is a much better source of XP than doing pretty much anything else, some later quest XP aside

It's possible to solve these problems and more.
You could make it so slaying a newly encountered creature type, or a hostile named NPC, will always grant XP. But there are many things you could try.
With a brand new system, you could even go full meta and make it so your character building or your decisions during play can alter how much XP you get from which source, rather than just some menu option.

Anyway, I'm glad that Styg is thinking of tackling the "oddity vs classic" debate and finding a solution for it. It kind of feels like tying up a loose end, rather than just adding more stuff on top.

 

[thesecret1]

- Oddity: you could choose to make a barbarian style character, who can then go through some of the game's toughest battles and get barely or no XP
- Oddity: you can overcome whatever challenge, and if designers forget to attach an oddity to it specifically then there is no reward
- Classic: farming XP is possible even if it takes a lot of time
- Classic: killing stuff in big battles is a much better source of XP than doing pretty much anything else, some later quest XP aside

Oddity suffered from neither of those issues, though. Every challenge of significance had an oddity hidden in there somewhere, and many oddities were only obtainable as random drops from enemies (ie. replacement for fighting XP).

 

[ciox]

- Oddity: you could choose to make a barbarian style character, who can then go through some of the game's toughest battles and get barely or no XP
- Oddity: you can overcome whatever challenge, and if designers forget to attach an oddity to it specifically then there is no reward
- Classic: farming XP is possible even if it takes a lot of time
- Classic: killing stuff in big battles is a much better source of XP than doing pretty much anything else, some later quest XP aside

Oddity suffered from neither of those issues, though. Every challenge of significance had an oddity hidden in there somewhere, and many oddities were only obtainable as random drops from enemies (ie. replacement for fighting XP).

You know just as well as I that the most dangerous enemies, like Death Stalkers or Greater Coil Spiders have a max oddity stack count of 2, which is easy to reach, and then you spend the remaining 90% of the game fighting those enemies in increasingly sadistic combat encounters, for less reward. The fact the Black Crawler was around since 2016 but only got its unique oddity added in 2022 also shows that the system had some naturally occuring blind spots, which the team was trying to address.

 

[thesecret1]

You know just as well as I that the most dangerous enemies, like Death Stalkers or Greater Coil Spiders have a max oddity stack count of 2, which is easy to reach, and then you spend the remaining 90% of the game fighting those enemies in increasingly sadistic combat encounters, for less reward.

But that's a positive, not a negative. I don't want to reach the level cap halfway through the game just because I've killed 6 trillion death stalkers by then (which you do if you start clearing the map on Dominating). The reward for the fight is being able to explore a new area (which may or may not contain new oddities to pick)

 

[Hydro]

Love oddity system, it encourages blind exploring like no game I’ve experienced so far. I see no problem with it not corresponding with the choices you make during level ups — it’s totally up to you how you justify this roleplay-wise. After all it’s all just an abstraction.

That said, I’d really love to see a sophisticated RPG system which only allows you to develop skills that you actually use. Like no chances to get that crossbow feat if you mostly use a pistol. But this is a whole another level of abstraction and it requires a specific approach.

 

[normie]

Hmm classic exp for combat stuff, oddities for everything else?

that's the worst of both worlds

 

[Ol' Willy]

Oddity in its current implementation has two issues:

- reload farming. If you know that certain critter may drop oddity, you may reload the encounter until you get it. Did so with siphoners
- oddity grab in new big areas. E.G., Core city, once you get there, you may comb it for a lot of oddities without doing any quests or combat of notice

 

[Ol' Willy]

That said, I’d really love to see a sophisticated RPG system which only allows you to develop skills that you actually use. Like no chances to get that crossbow feat if you mostly use a pistol. But this is a whole another level of abstraction and it requires a specific approach.

Easy, on top of classic XP or oddity, you add skill use leveling

For example, every ten frags with a pistol add 1 SP to your pistol skill

 

[Beans00]

I played underrail with classic xp, oddity was for autistic people imo.


If there is no xp for combat, I won't be playing this game

 

[Litmanen]

I played underrail with classic xp, oddity was for autistic people imo.


If there is no xp for combat, I won't be playing this game

Oddity was an amazing system to push exploration to its extreme.

 

[Beans00]

I played underrail with classic xp, oddity was for autistic people imo.


If there is no xp for combat, I won't be playing this game

Oddity was an amazing system to push exploration to its extreme.

I explored 95% of the base game, but I'm not willing to look through every locker and trachcan to pick up garbage to level up.


You can disagree but my opinion is that oddity is autistic.

 

[Sweeper]

Hmm classic exp for combat stuff, oddities for everything else?

No. Oddities is the better system.

>Combatfag game
>Let's add a superfluous system that rewards exploration instead of combat
Oddity fags disgust me.

 

[BING XI LAO]

Underrail is more remarkable for its exploration than its combat. Combat XP belongs in MMOs, which in turn belong in the dumpster. There just shouldn't be a hundred oddities in generic trashcans and probably there won't be.

 

[Sweeper]

Underrail is more remarkable for its exploration than its combat

Underrail is first and foremost a buildfag game, and by extension, a combatfag one.
Exploration is only rewarding if you use the gimmick xp system.

Combat XP belongs in MMOs

You know which game uses a non-combat xp system? Pillars of Eternity.
I rest my case. At least Styg had the common sense to put in classic. Creating a hybrid system for Infusion doesn't bode well. It's a half-measure that will end up satisfying no one, like the TB/RT modes for Arcanum.