Indie Urtuk: The Desolation - open-world dark fantasy turn-based RPG

[MadSheepStudios]

Fought the boss, there were 2 "mini" bosses level 16 and 17 or something dealing twice the boss damage.
I was also unprepared, my party was butchered.

After a fresh start, i freed a warmonk, he's a fucking beast.

Karwla boss ?
Going straight for the boss, my party was level 2/5, i think so i traveled back to eradicate the Karwla.
When i turned back to fight the boss, Karwla had spread and it's now a Karwla boss but no mini bosses this time, far easier than the original fight (didn't fight it but previous fight was 5 vs 8 Karwla lvl 9-10 and they barely scratched anyone --> higher ground + aegis + protect an ally + offensive perks)

Some ranged Karwla and/or a fix on the Karwla boss fight might be necessary, like 3/4 Karwla mini bosses + 1/2 ranged to make it the hell it should be.

Bug ?
When Urtuk is under the barbarian focus ability (dmgx0.7 -30 or 40% current HP ) + Focus (next attack is a crit) , he gets an insane bonus damage making him hit as much as the barbarian / warmonk.
It's weird because his base damage is 42 and he can hit for 300 / 400 ...

Shield an ally
It's extremely powerful because the protector gets 0 damage and the protected one counters ...
There's something to be done to balance it, 50% damage received ? Less ?
Maybe it's tougher in the second area as you said and it's not necessary.

Screen-shot ?
The default screen key takes a screen-shot of the desktop instead of the game, is it deliberate ? Wanted to share some screens here.

Shield ally is really powerfull, but is quite hard to trigger: you must know what will enemy do and if it's worthwile ...
The Karwla enemies are subject to change - for now we have only one class. 2 more are comming in next week .
The Karwla will expand and they will butcher everything in path including even the boss ... but we will think about this.
About the barbarian focus ability - yes if you can leverage it well, it can boost the final damage quite high - and with critical, it can one-shoot an enemy .

 

[Darth Canoli]

2 more Karwla classes, nice.

About shield an ally, it's really easy to predict who's going to be hit, because the AI hates sand and "traps" tiles and their priorities are crystal clear.
Urtuk > ranged > warriors > knight
Changes if someone is wounded and he's now the priority.
Enemies thieves try to get past the warriors to fight Urtuk or the ranged units.

Some battlescapes might not offer any cover but most of them offer you a personal stronghold and between aegis and protect an ally, you cover 2 fighters so a team of 5 with urtuk + the javelin unit inaccessible is virtually invincible.

Also checked the blood strength focus ability, it does what it's supposed to but with the kawla +50% HP item, it's also a 50% dmg boost and you can combine it with the +25% HP item ...

 

[Darth Canoli]

--> AI travelling "issues"
Forgot one thing, i think the IA is good, once they make contact at least.

On the other hand, if you make them cross the entire map because you spotted a very nice place where to build your defense, they don't stay clustered, worse, they really fan out on the entire map because not only they block each other but they avoid sand tiles, even if there is only one to cross (one is harmless as far as i know).

When they reach you, one by one or two by two, there is just no opposition and you can kill them just fast enough for one to take the exact same place as the other.

--> Travelling + you fortify / wait and use the crit items
It's even easier to wait for them fortified because of the focus ability, next attack is a crit and again, with the item that makes a crit exhaust your target, they don't last long, maximum 2 turns, and again, with the item that hastens you when you crit, it's an irrepressible dynamic.

Don't get me wrong, it's fun but the only threats are the ranged units and there's not so many of them.

--> Quality of the combat system vs difficulty
Also, i don't mind and i didn't try the second area either.
This time, i'll go straight for it and hope for the worst. (i mean the toughest opponents possible)

To clarify my position, i really like the combat and i think it's really good, also, the fact you can "abuse" it is a good thing, when you can't, most of the time the game is tasteless and boring.
I'm not one for asking tough battles when the combat system is bland, because it's just tedious.
On the other hand, when it's really good like in Urtuk, more challenge is interesting.

 

[MadSheepStudios]

--> AI travelling "issues"
Forgot one thing, i think the IA is good, once they make contact at least.

On the other hand, if you make them cross the entire map because you spotted a very nice place where to build your defense, they don't stay clustered, worse, they really fan out on the entire map because not only they block each other but they avoid sand tiles, even if there is only one to cross (one is harmless as far as i know).

When they reach you, one by one or two by two, there is just no opposition and you can kill them just fast enough for one to take the exact same place as the other.

--> Travelling + you fortify / wait and use the crit items
It's even easier to wait for them fortified because of the focus ability, next attack is a crit and again, with the item that makes a crit exhaust your target, they don't last long, maximum 2 turns, and again, with the item that hastens you when you crit, it's an irrepressible dynamic.

Don't get me wrong, it's fun but the only threats are the ranged units and there's not so many of them.

--> Quality of the combat system vs difficulty
Also, i don't mind and i didn't try the second area either.
This time, i'll go straight for it and hope for the worst. (i mean the toughest opponents possible)

To clarify my position, i really like the combat and i think it's really good, also, the fact you can "abuse" it is a good thing, when you can't, most of the time the game is tasteless and boring.
I'm not one for asking tough battles when the combat system is bland, because it's just tedious.
On the other hand, when it's really good like in Urtuk, more challenge is interesting.

good points!
the travel & AI is quite complex but we still improve it if possible.
the game is in the beginning easy, but wait until you fight 15+ enemies in a single battle
looking forward when you beat the 4.boss -> here ends the beta (won the game). In future we plan to add more zones and also special 'dungeon zones' from quest completion, etc...

 

[Darth Canoli]

Finished the beta version

Game breaking bug

Spoiler

In the fourth area, the squad spawned next to a guard and his prisonner, Urtuk spawned on the same tile as the guard and only the guard was visible, when it was his turn to play, it crashed the game when i hit wait (he was blocked so i didn't try to move him)

Display Bug (mutators items)

Spoiler

each area jump, mutators items change skin, it's a bit troubling, not sure if they do when loading a savegame as well.

Spoiler (special character)

Spoiler

About the swamp engager (not sure if he can be of a different class) with the unknown origin perk and his brother.
Maybe it's unfinished but i tried not to kill his brother, didn't do anything, killed him and his perk is still not revealed, didn't try to let his brother kill him tough.
This character his a beast, past the second turn, with the "sometimes extra attack" (i never remember the names ) mutator, he can kill 2/3 enemies a turn if he can get that many in close combat range.

Second area :
Not much to say, spreading thorns are a bit annoying but were never in the way (i'm happy it's a area 2 only mechanism though), mushrooms can be used as 3 tiles fortifications as the AI stays clear from them.
Also, couldn't push the mushrooms with the guardian (didn't try with "mutators push" ) despite what their description says.

Great boss fight, i was lucky enough to kill him last so his special skill didn't impact the combat, also, the boss himself tried too hard to reach the priest and the javelin man avoiding the fight in the first rounds.

Third area :
That's where it gets rough, because of the random missions, i got the toughest ones on the first and second battle, my team was wiped out on the first one.
Two sick ones on ones side, 2 heavy arbalest and their freinds having the higher grounds on the other, a lot of thorns in the middle and poor management on my part.
And besides that, 2 out of 6 were mostly useless because they didn't have armor piercing (the warmonk and the javelin thrower)

Interesting because it makes you try some other classes and 2 heavy arbalest against you most of the time is fun, i wish i could hire one.

Fourth area :
Very good, at this point, the swamp engager gets to 100+ STR, he's a killing machine even if i try to share the kills, it might impact my experience.
Often 3 ranged units against you, that's good.
Also, between the axemen jumping at you and backstabbing, the "engagers" pulling you, the swordmen making kebabs and the ones stunning you, they're quite dangerous.

The boss fight wasn't tougher than the rest without an unfavorable battle-scape.
Still, in that area, the only way to die is to split your team when you're overconfident (split them in 3 groups twice and paid the price)

• Combat is very good.
• Not sure if it's just me but i didn't get any quests in the third area.
• One guy carried the infestation all the way from the second area, i even think he didn't get rid of it with low level and a reduced level once or twice.
• Second area is the weakest aside for the boss fight (could be pumped up a bit)
• Third area boss could be a bit tougher too.
• Most dangerous boss is the first one if you go straight for him.
• Mercenaries fights/quests are balanced in the second area but they're not a match anymore in the next ones.
• Neutral/recruitable unit guarding peasants can be OS by the enemies in the fourth area, same for the wounded recruitable ones if they don't spawn near your team.

 

[Nostaljaded]

UI Feedback:

- 'Title Screen', 'Party Character Screen' does not properly support 4:3, 5:4 screen resolutions. Can look at implementing windowed mode instead if resources are scarce.

- UI QOL Improvements:

• Movement range stat is missing in 'Party Character Screen', need it when deciding who will be put to reserve
  
  
• Up/Down arrow & W/S hotkey (and/or 'Number' hotkeys) to scroll between characters in 'Party Character Screen' to minimize mouse movement for checking descriptions on hover & drag-and-drop item equipping/unequipping on multiple characters
  
  
• Right-click/Space/Esc hotkey for most common operations on each screen. E.g. close 'Character Screen' on both world map and battle screen, close 'Battle Results' screen
  
  
  
  
  
• Hotkeys for activating 'Battle Character Screen' (maybe 'C' hotkey), similar to the key bindings for movement & abilities activation

- Request for an 'Undo Move' action icon with hotkey (maybe 'Z' hotkey) for mis-clicks, on the left of the 'Wait Hourglass' icon

- Would like to have 1 additional 'zoom-out' battle screen view for easier tactical planning. Currently need to do a fair bit of back-and-forth camera panning.

- 'Battle Character Screen' text are overlapping

- Is a 'Animation Speed' 4x slider or ON/OFF/Skip toggle planned in dev roadmap for 'World Map Transversing'?

- Think partial voiced 'Battle Advice' is just fluff (& I assume it's not done by a professional voice actor), resources can be better utilized else where, e.g. during story cutscenes between the areas (if planned and succinct).


Thumbs up for a smooth and sleek presentation.

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Finished the beta version

Hey! Thanks a lot for your points - I've added them to our 'check/to-do list' for further work. That 'gamebreaking bug' is to be fixed fast (thanks for reporting).

 

[MadSheepStudios]

...

thanks! I have questions for you:

- the 'Undo movement' button is quite hard to implement - mainly because your character could walk over traps/spikes/ could trigger attack of opportunity, so we're not sure if we should really invest our time into this.. Maybe we could implement a 'partial undo'? E.g. meaning if the walk didnt trigger any actions, you would be able to execute it.

- the Unit screen with overlapping, well we are actually thinking to not use it. So player would need to better observe enemies to get a clue what abilities/traits they could have. Kind of a mystery/exploration thing.. It's a design choice. What do you think?

good points with campaign animation speed and key-bindings - we'll add it. Also we'll fix the display resolutions, thanks for posting.
voice and other small issues are something we fix

 

[Darth Canoli]

One thing i forgot.

When the wait button is superposed to a reachable tile (movement left) and you click it, the unit will travel there instead of ending its turn.
Got it a couple of times.

 

[Nostaljaded]

- the 'Undo movement' button is quite hard to implement - mainly because your character could walk over traps/spikes/ could trigger attack of opportunity, so we're not sure if we should really invest our time into this.. Maybe we could implement a 'partial undo'? E.g. meaning if the walk didnt trigger any actions, you would be able to execute it.

Darth Canoli will have a better opinion on this (& frequency of mis-clicks) as I didn't play beyond the 1st area. 'Partial undo' is better than nothing.

- the Unit screen with overlapping, well we are actually thinking to not use it. So player would need to better observe enemies to get a clue what abilities/traits they could have. Kind of a mystery/exploration thing.. It's a design choice. What do you think?

Would prefer to be shown as it is with proper text layout (scrolling bars?) as it gives players information on each enemy's actual threat level based on their skillsets.

An alternative (more work) will be to have enemies' skills start off as '???' until it's used by that enemy type. The 'unused/used skill' flag should persist across games.
- This will give players a sense of progression/unlocking even when players revisit/restart/replay the game, rather than have the feeling that all the previous time sunk into the game is plain useless/wasteful
- Also, players don't play 1 game-at-a-time till completion & won't remember which enemy has which skills between each play session

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Darth Canoli will have a better opinion on this (& frequency of mis-clicks) as I didn't play beyond the 1st area. 'Partial undo' is better than nothing.

And what about a confirmation button after you click the icon? So you would have to click the icon 2x to really get to that location.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Darth Canoli will have a better opinion on this (& frequency of mis-clicks) as I didn't play beyond the 1st area. 'Partial undo' is better than nothing.

That's a "common" feature people get used to but i wouldn't loose sleep over it, you get used to not having it as well.

And what about a confirmation button after you click the icon? So you would have to click the icon 2x to really get to that location.

It would be the worst option in my opinion.

Partial undo move > Don't change a thing >>> confirmation button.

- the 'Undo movement' button is quite hard to implement - mainly because your character could walk over traps/spikes/ could trigger attack of opportunity, so we're not sure if we should really invest our time into this.. Maybe we could implement a 'partial undo'? E.g. meaning if the walk didnt trigger any actions, you would be able to execute it.

If a partial undo is not too much of a headache, it's not a bad idea.

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Darth Canoli will have a better opinion on this (& frequency of mis-clicks) as I didn't play beyond the 1st area. 'Partial undo' is better than nothing.

That's a "common" feature people get used to but i wouldn't loose sleep over it, you get used to not having it as well.

And what about a confirmation button after you click the icon? So you would have to click the icon 2x to really get to that location.

It would be the worst option in my opinion.

Partial undo move > Don't change a thing >>> confirmation button.

- the 'Undo movement' button is quite hard to implement - mainly because your character could walk over traps/spikes/ could trigger attack of opportunity, so we're not sure if we should really invest our time into this.. Maybe we could implement a 'partial undo'? E.g. meaning if the walk didnt trigger any actions, you would be able to execute it.

If a partial undo is not too much of a headache, it's not a bad idea.

Alright, will think about the feature, and see if people will request it as a priority feature .

 

[hilfazer]

Alright, will think about the feature, and see if people will request it as a priority feature .

I request it as a priority feature.


Also, i'd like to keep enemy information. Some abilities on enemies appear randomly so it's not possible to remember them. Knowing who has what is important not only for planning a battle but also for alehyde extraction.

 

[Nostaljaded]

And what about a confirmation button after you click the icon? So you would have to click the icon 2x to really get to that location.

Darth Canoli said:
It would be the worst option in my opinion.

Partial undo move > Don't change a thing >>> confirmation button.

Rather than a confirmation button, 2 clicks on the same hex for movement will probably be better.

Will be good for 1st click to show a simulated, silhouette animation on what will happen on the resulting movement as terrain is sometimes visually blocked by another character; movement hotkey '1' to still remain as a single-key press as it's an 'intended' key press for movement.

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Alright, will think about the feature, and see if people will request it as a priority feature .

I request it as a priority feature.


Also, i'd like to keep enemy information. Some abilities on enemies appear randomly so it's not possible to remember them. Knowing who has what is important not only for planning a battle but also for alehyde extraction.

You're right - I am thinking about exposing this information about enemy but with some kind of 'discovery'. This just means that character will see "?????" in the Unit screen for enemy's abilities/traits, and in time (by killing) the infromation will be revealed. What do you guys think about that?
Reason for me - I want to achieve in this game big factor of Mystery & Exploration.

 

[MadSheepStudios]

And what about a confirmation button after you click the icon? So you would have to click the icon 2x to really get to that location.

Darth Canoli said:
It would be the worst option in my opinion.

Partial undo move > Don't change a thing >>> confirmation button.

Rather than a confirmation button, 2 clicks on the same hex for movement will probably be better.

Will be good for 1st click to show a simulated, silhouette animation on what will happen on the resulting movement as terrain is sometimes visually blocked by another character; movement hotkey '1' to still remain as a single-key press as it's an 'intended' key press for movement.

That was my idea. Two clicks instead of one on the same icon. First 'similation', second 'confirmation'. Also maybe disable this behavior in settings would be also nice..

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Darth Canoli]

From https://madsheepstudios.itch.io/urtuk-the-desolation

Hoping it's not the same message as the one from twitter on march 25 (i'm blocking twitter )

Dev update #5 - Don't panic!
Administrator Mar 28, 2019
share

Hello guys!

We work hard to come with new features and fixes and today I want to present the results.

As the title above suggests, it's about Panic. We introduced a special behavior for the characters in the battlefield called 'Panic'. This is inflicted when very specific conditions are met for any given character. We call these conditions 'Vulnerabilities'. These are weaknesses such as prone to panic when surrounded by enemies, or get critically hit multiple times in row, or an adjacent ally dies or he is focused with all attacks. We implemented many. For the player, we added 'hints' to explore the vulnerability of any enemy by hovering the mouse cursor over the unit. Then some shouts in textual form will show up next to that character, letting the player do reasoning to what it could potentially mean. The Panic effect is rather strong - for 3 or 4 turns, the inflicted unit will randomly walk and is unable to attack or support allies.

Next thing we fixed was the balancing issues with Karwla. They are designed to stop the player to farm/grind in a zone. But they were rather weak and many testers complained that they actually were farming Karwla . With the recent updates, we made them stronger and also introduced new Karwla classes along.

Further addition in the game is the ability to destroy or clone existing mutator. Each mutator is an item and can be equipped and we thought some mutators might be better than others, making this feature a must.

We implemented the new 'Start screen' when player begins new campaign. In it, you can choose your starting company along with two items you select from given collection. There are three game difficulties you can choose from - easy, normal and hard. We still balance it and in future we'll add more difficulties based on your feedback!

Our current road map is to implement formation selection or your characters when starting the battle, add new battle preparation stuff like changing the terrain or add barricades and traps. Then we want the battle map to be re-generated if player is not happy with it. And many other things!



You can get the most recent builds only via our Discord server, so please join here:

https://discord.gg/zeNfS9q



That's it for today folks!

Enjoy!

 

[toro]

And what about a confirmation button after you click the icon? So you would have to click the icon 2x to really get to that location.

Darth Canoli said:
It would be the worst option in my opinion.

Partial undo move > Don't change a thing >>> confirmation button.

Rather than a confirmation button, 2 clicks on the same hex for movement will probably be better.

Will be good for 1st click to show a simulated, silhouette animation on what will happen on the resulting movement as terrain is sometimes visually blocked by another character; movement hotkey '1' to still remain as a single-key press as it's an 'intended' key press for movement.

That was my idea. Two clicks instead of one on the same icon. First 'similation', second 'confirmation'. Also maybe disable this behavior in settings would be also nice..

Please put the game on steam. I want to wishlist.

 

[MadSheepStudios]

And what about a confirmation button after you click the icon? So you would have to click the icon 2x to really get to that location.

Darth Canoli said:
It would be the worst option in my opinion.

Partial undo move > Don't change a thing >>> confirmation button.

Rather than a confirmation button, 2 clicks on the same hex for movement will probably be better.

Will be good for 1st click to show a simulated, silhouette animation on what will happen on the resulting movement as terrain is sometimes visually blocked by another character; movement hotkey '1' to still remain as a single-key press as it's an 'intended' key press for movement.

That was my idea. Two clicks instead of one on the same icon. First 'similation', second 'confirmation'. Also maybe disable this behavior in settings would be also nice..

Please put the game on steam. I want to wishlist.

Thanks for the interest!
We will release on Steam, but first we want to put it on itch.io and try the "First Access" release. Hope you don't have issues with itch.io

 

[toro]

We will release on Steam, but first we want to put it on itch.io and try the "First Access" release. Hope you don't have issues with itch.io

No problem with itch.io just that I don't buy shit on that site

I will wait for the Steam release. The game looks good.

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Abu Antar]