Urban Strife - turn-based zombie survival RPG - coming to Early Access on December 10th

[goregasm]

Game takes place in suburban Georgia, USA, somewhere in mid 2000's. Urban is a fictional county & town, of course.

Interesting point about FMJ. But having armor piercing stuff in abundance would be a massive pain (considering you don't start with much protection), while not helping much with the zombie problem. One would argue it was a worthy depart from real world stats.

I read somewhere police uses hollow point 9mm to avoid over-penetration and secondary unwanted casualty. Isn't that true?

Not trying to drag this into gun nerd stuff, just giving some personal insight as an American gun owner who has lived in gun "friendly" states and anti gun states.

I understand the idea with fmj in relation to the gameplay, not really a thing to me, would just make me slightly grumble about "realism". I'm just providing some information rather than any "YoU sHoUlD cHaNgE ThiS" to accommodate my firearm autism.

Police forces use different ammo across departments in the U.S.. When I lived in Chicago they carried HP, when I lived in NJ they used fmj,
(HPs are actually illegal in NJ in most cases, because NJ is retarded) North Carolina was FMJ, NYC was HP, where I live now it's more rural and patrolled by a small force and Sheriffs and Staties, they all tend to use FMJ, there is some wiggle room on caliber as well.

Again not a "thing" to me just jumping into the convo, been looking forward to this game for quite awhile now, and excited to see what's in store for full release.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

I see, that's all very good info, since as non-US citizens we must rely on second hand information usually from reddit, quora and random articles.
Guess it depends largely on the field experience of those police departments and what works best. Which is perfect, because it gives us the leeway to choose what's best for Urban setting.

To explain better, the so called "army faction" is actually made up for various governmental services and agencies or what's left of them: sheriff's office, court police, feds, secret service, firemen, CDC and everything else in between. The "army" is just the boss faction that has some sort of control and influence, but the camps are run by these smaller groups (some have army squads as backup), so there will be plenty of space to progress through the various gun/ammo/armor types.

Bikers are more on the underground weapon smuggling side of things so expect the more exotic stuff to be there, like Warsaw pact weapons and others.

The cultists do not rely much of human fighters (except herders and some monks) because they have a huge supply of undead "recruits". They are more on the melee/houseware/handmade/silent side of gear. While they rarely drop good weapons, their zombies are the best source of gold molars, which is kind of "Nuke Cola" bottle cap of the zombie apocalypse.

 

[lightbane]

Will there be "special dialogue" if your Int is low enough, Fallout 1/2 style?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

We considered adding that, but we already have to juggle a lot of stuff on the RPG side so we simply didn't have the time and energy for another set of dialogue options. We'd rather focus on having the recruits & NPCs well shaped as individuals and reactive to what happens around them (and to them).

Plus Fallout did it already well enough.

 

[Alienman]

Just make the main protag shoot himself when he finds a gun if the INT is low.

 

[Harthwain]

There's a special affiliation "perk", the faction. All encountered NPCs except the player have an allegiance to one of the 3 major factions; this is part of their story and used as check in RPG

Do you have to pick a side at some point or can you avoid joining any faction?

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Just make the main protag shoot himself when he finds a gun if the INT is low.

In the dick, like that poor bastard from 8'mile

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

There's a special affiliation "perk", the faction. All encountered NPCs except the player have an allegiance to one of the 3 major factions; this is part of their story and used as check in RPG

Do you have to pick a side at some point or can you avoid joining any faction?

You can, in theory, kill each and every faction in game. But without their help, both in resources and blueprints, the endgame will be extremely tough and painful. But there's no magic plot armor for any of them if that's what you want to do and you're prepared for the consequences. There are only two hardcoded fail conditions (that can happen before game end): your hero dies or your shelter falls.

 

[agris]

There's a special affiliation "perk", the faction. All encountered NPCs except the player have an allegiance to one of the 3 major factions; this is part of their story and used as check in RPG

Do you have to pick a side at some point or can you avoid joining any faction?

You can, in theory, kill each and every faction in game. But without their help, both in resources and blueprints, the endgame will be extremely tough and painful. But there's no magic plot armor for any of them if that's what you want to do and you're prepared for the consequences. There are only two hardcoded fail conditions (that can happen before game end): your hero dies or your shelter falls.

Thats cool, props for not making joining one required.

Can you play them off of each other and/or betray one for the other? Think Reno houses in Fallout 2.

 

[Litmanen]

Think Reno houses in Fallout 2.

I honestly think he has already underlined he doesn't want to copy Fallout but make something different.

Plus Fallout did it already well enough.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Until a certain point of no return you're free to juggle between faction groups, cherry picking rewards. But there will be a certain threshold where a faction will declare war on you if you kill too many of its warlords. Once they did that you cannot sway them back into friendly zone, all of them will be KOS. You can betray your ally too after you bleed them dry of resources, if that's something you fancy.

Everyone in your team will hate you, the good Mayor Adams will be close to a heart attack, but it's the end of the world and you hold the big gun so it's your call.
You get one chance to make good and plenty to be the a betraying backstabbing scumbag.
It will certainly make for one hell of an endgame summary.

 

[Alienman]

USG_Mucifikatorul I have to ask. I can't remember from the demo. Anyway, Jagged Alliance 3 only had static animations on death, which made any kind of explosion death disappointing since they never rag-dolled away flying, landing in hilarious poses. Will Urban Strife have ragdoll effects for NPCs?

 

[The Wall]

How much world simulation are you aiming for? It's clear as day you'll have some and tie it to gameplay. Which is FANTASTIC and boosts appeal of survival in zombie post-apo. From Battle Brothers to Stalker to Rimworld/Songs of Styx, where do you fall on scale?

I believe what Daggerfall started should be continued. Future of Incline is in World Simulation tied to gameplay systems. Code co-written, assets co-created with AI and story written by Humans of Chris Avellone writing calibre. Imagine...

 

[9ted6]

Will the zombies be configurable in terms of strength, speed and so on similar to Project Zomboid?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

We use ragdoll for death.

We do not like simulation and realism for the sake of simulation. We are building a game that should be fun to play. That's our goal at least.

Zombie threat does not come from individual zombie stats or skill in USG, but from them acting as a group, moving as one and being relentless in their attack.

 

[Alienman]

USG_Mucifikatorul Just checking in. Everything going well? Game still coming out?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

We're doing some major hud rework to accommodate mechanics that only had placeholder graphics so far (perks, new team away menu, new car menu, new crafting menu, new diplomacy, new shelter upgrades, etc) and we're updating the campaign script with all the new maps (also updating some of the starting RPG with stuff we've added in the meantime). And we've written about 15k lines of reaction/comments for the recruits and we're in the process of recording those. Long story short, that's where we are.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

MPS will showcase the game for press and influencers at Gamescom in August, we'll probably announce our release plans on that occasion

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Yep, they will have a booth in the business hall and they will showcase 4 games, Urban Strife being one of them.

https://www.gamespress.com/en-US/Mi...citing-New-Titles-at-Gamescom-2024-in-Cologne

Stay tuned. There will be news coming.

 

[Alienman]

Will they have hot booth babes? I have heard they are back.

 

[luj1]

How's the game going?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

We've tried to keep track of the development more efficiently, posting dev summaries here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/710230/discussions/0/4556037123801539610/

A full blog post is somewhere in the process of being approved and published but can't exactly give you an exact date when that will happen.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

19.09.2024
- We've finished implementing most perks, complete with their requirements and bonuses. Only a few are still WIP, because they require more extensive code (drone pilot for example needs our drone code to be updated)
- We have activated the body part injuries and crippling effects, with their respective penalties; combat feels way more dramatic when a leg shot reduces your movement range and a wounded arm makes using a weapon very hard; same goes for your enemies, of course.
- If a limb reaches 0 hp, there will be a lingering crippling effect - that's where your Field Doctor will be your best friend; that or you'll have to find the nearest clinic.
- Combat, in particular melee combat, has been finetuned to work with these new conditions.
- We have added new recipes for backpack crafting and specialized (mechanic) crafts.
- Silencer and scopes are back as weapon attachments, more will come; they also have a homemade version that can be crafted.
- An entire arsenal of homemade bombs has been added to the recipes: smoke bombs, nail bombs, pipe bombs, firecrackers, aerosol bombs, sticky molotovs - all this beside the classic army stuff.
- Metallic crossbow bolts are now upgrades of the common wooden bolts so don't need to throw the cheap stuff away, just repurpose them.
- Reusing and recycling old stuff will be a theme of the backpack crafting in the game.
- You can now craft and recycle homemade body armor.
- Recycling weapons now will be an important source of materials for upgrading your shelter (beside the stuff you loot); having a mechanic to break apart a weapon is even better since that will yield more stuff; recycling a broken weapon is possible, but you'll the worst results.
- The clue minigame that reveals the background of each faction warlord has received some upgrades: now you can fail the checks or be tricked into picking a false lead - the bosses got smarter at spilling their secrets.
- All the help tutorials are now saved and can be recalled after being closed from an easy to access button, right on the main hud.

Work on many fronts is going forward at full speed, but the major announcements will be made once all the pieces are into place. Stay tuned.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

- Prologue and first act of the campaign are now integrated and scripted
- The secret clues system has been activated for all the first act warlords and it's working
- The new faction reward mechanic is in, now a warlord will give you a list of blueprints to pick from
- We've improved on the system a bit, adding a background system of credits instead of them asking for a quest item (items can be lost, dropped, sold, credits are forever)
- We've integrated the clues into random encounters too, beside the old minor rewards
- More weapons have received attachments or weapon upgrade kits
- Equipment dropped by dead enemies now has varied states of wear for a touch of post-apoc realism
- Crippling wounds can now be healed at camps where a nurse/medic is present, including own base (cost is still WIP)
- The shelter upgrade system is operational, you can gather materials, recycle stuff to gain materials, donate them and build your first shelter upgrades as you finish the Prologue
- Attribute gains are solid even throughout the Prologue - provided your recruits are equally active in battle
- Fine tuning of the gains is WIP, our goal is for the player to start working on unlocking perks/specializations as soon as the Prologue is over (even during it if focused on advancement)

We've updated the Steam Store page with fresh screenshots from the latest game build so if you're curious about how everything looks lately, you can see it there.

For the duration of the Turn Based Festival we will also stream a sneak peek of the game on our store page!

Here's a direct link too:
https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561199065640560

You can see the cultist herders at work, our new homemade grenades, the gun attachments and a few others tricks (RPG checks, etc)

 

[Alienman]

Is it you playing?