Sykar
Arcane
As the title suggest, imagine you had the time, skill, will and personnel to modify Underrail further to your liking, what would you add or change?
For me the main things would be:
1.) Crafting overhaul: I always thought it is funny that you cannot even begin to craft something just because it has a high quality. In fact higher quality should make it easier to build something. I would make it so that quality give you a bonus on your crafting skill and you can craft anything what you want and crafting skill will determine the final quality of the product with very low skills having a small chance to ruin the product if you attempt something rather sophisticated. I would change quality from poor, -15% to final quality, to excellent, +15% end quality, and of course such great quality is very rare and very expensive.
2.) Craftsmen and rafting masters: A big pet peeve of mine is the fact there are no NPC craftsmen in the game. I would put them, especially the masters, behind a significant time sink and maybe tie them to certain factions, at least those who can offer the highest quality of potential crafts. On top of that, master craftsmen's should demand premium prices for their services. Let us say anything above 100 Quality should be considered master crafts and prices get exponentially more expensive after that point so you have to be care and/or have high mercantile to keep prices reasonable even in Dominating.
Crafting would still be valuable since it would be cheaper and easier to access, I just want crafting to be an option, not a necessity for higher difficulties.
3.) Inherent sprint: I see no reason why you should not be allowed to sprint. I would make it an inferior version to the current feat and let the feat upgrade it.
4.) More social skill checks and more impact from them. At the moment it is mostly fluff which lets you avoid a little combat and maybe alter an NPCs fate or ending. Considering how combat heavy this game is I feel both Persuasion and Intimidate need more opportunities to shine and a little more impact. Mercantile is decent enough that I think it is in a good enough spot to be a complementary skill.
5.) Re-balance Dominating: It is no secret that I am very critical of the current Dominating difficulty, my biggest gripe being that the stat and number increase severely negatively impact builds which try to minimize the amount of combat, which is now far rarer possible.
Instead of mind numbing and tedious numbers increase I would give more active feats, additional consumables, etc. What is more, instead of merely halfing the effectiveness of healing stims I would instead let them heal over time. Hard it would take 3 rounds for full effect, 6 rounds until the hypo is done healing you and finally revert the reduced amount of total healing so they heal the same as in normal. Same goes for the enemies, I hate it when the player gets treated special one way or the other, especially when it is that obvious. Furthermore I would add a few more types of stims at the doctors, maybe even just rare and expensive similar to Crawler Poison caldrops for example.
After that is done I would re-place enemies so they make sense in terms of progression and immersion. I see no reason why 6 Goliathuses need to be in front of the Hanging Rat and I for sure see no reason why you will meet Death Stalkers before normal Crawlers, ergo no more Death Stalkers down in the Core City warehouse underground during Gorsky's quest.
6.) Re-balance feats: A lot of feats are great to good but there are some which are bad to outright awful. Best example would be Snooping, which essentially wastes an entire feat slot for a little more loot and an occasional short cut, at best. If snooping would add to trap detection it would be at least fill a niche for low perception characters which struggle finding traps.
Next would be Ninja Looter and Burglar, two feats which are at best niche but actually closer to ingame LARP material. I would fuse those two into entirely new feat, change Ninja Looter to just Ninja and give it a bonus to throwing knifes. Burglar could add +10% to Stealth, lockpicking and traps in controlled areas. Maybe even 15%-20%.
Now moving on to Mental Subversion which is not worth the pick. I would merge it with Cerebral Trauma and give it a new effect, that enemy are dazed for a round after Fear, Berserk or Mental Breakdown or if they resist it so they will always have some effect.
Next on the agenda would be Quick Pockets which is not very attractive either. I would just merge it with Pack Rathound and give it a new effect and name, Quick Hands, and it would lower the AP cost of quick slot items by let's say 33%. That might be a niche but attractive ability, certainly more attractive than now.
7.) Added mechanics: I think changing weapons warrants a small AP cost. It is a big advantage the character has over NPCs with a second weapon in hand he adds a lot of flexibility and power. Switching however should cost you a little and make you think whether it is worth switching or not. Furthermore I would like to add injuries like in Fallout: New Vegas had, where you had to see a doctor and pay a fee. On top of that certain combat stims like Adrenaline should pose a risk of getting you addicted to it as well with at least noticeable drawbacks while on withdrawal.
8.) Traits: I would love to see a trait system similar to Fallout with the drawbacks being big enough that you have to think long and hard if you really want it. Best example from FO how not to design a trait is Gifted, that one was plain overpowered. Of course traits should be optional and you should be able to play without any.
9.) Expanded quest lines: To this day it annoys me that once you are done wiping out the Black Crawlers you are done with Gorsky. It sure is a cool quest line but it feels unfinished with Gorsky just sitting and waiting there in that hideout after those 3 quests are done. He did not move back to Core City to merely take over a gang hideout, I am sure he had bigger plans in mind, especially when it concerns the Protectorate which he hates with a passion.
Same goes for Oculus. Great quest line to get into its ranks, but once you are there you get 1! quest and thats it and the quest is nice and all but felt a bit of a let down once it was done. I would have loved to get some quests from different characters to expand on the mythos behind the creators of the Oculus.
Become the Invictus should have been also a bit more involved. You only find a little over a handful of enemies to get there. I think there should be twice that many at least and Garry does not really notice you until you are halfway through. Even then, you become the Invictus and you are never challenged for the title? I see no reason to get at least one more fight from a challenger afterwards. What is more would have been cool to be able to meet one or two in the Hardcore bar for some trash talk before the bloodbath begins.
10.) UI: The UI is functional but very basic in appearance. I would love to change it into a little more polished appearance, something like FO for example had where the UI mirrored the environment. That or at least different colors like Deus Ex had. I would also like to add one more filter for armors. Currently armors and weapons are in the same category.
Those are just a few "minor" things I would love to change in the game, what about you guys?
New feats: A most basic type if feat I find lacking is a bonus attribute point or points feat. Something as simple as +2 to an attribute might be welcome.
For me the main things would be:
1.) Crafting overhaul: I always thought it is funny that you cannot even begin to craft something just because it has a high quality. In fact higher quality should make it easier to build something. I would make it so that quality give you a bonus on your crafting skill and you can craft anything what you want and crafting skill will determine the final quality of the product with very low skills having a small chance to ruin the product if you attempt something rather sophisticated. I would change quality from poor, -15% to final quality, to excellent, +15% end quality, and of course such great quality is very rare and very expensive.
2.) Craftsmen and rafting masters: A big pet peeve of mine is the fact there are no NPC craftsmen in the game. I would put them, especially the masters, behind a significant time sink and maybe tie them to certain factions, at least those who can offer the highest quality of potential crafts. On top of that, master craftsmen's should demand premium prices for their services. Let us say anything above 100 Quality should be considered master crafts and prices get exponentially more expensive after that point so you have to be care and/or have high mercantile to keep prices reasonable even in Dominating.
Crafting would still be valuable since it would be cheaper and easier to access, I just want crafting to be an option, not a necessity for higher difficulties.
3.) Inherent sprint: I see no reason why you should not be allowed to sprint. I would make it an inferior version to the current feat and let the feat upgrade it.
4.) More social skill checks and more impact from them. At the moment it is mostly fluff which lets you avoid a little combat and maybe alter an NPCs fate or ending. Considering how combat heavy this game is I feel both Persuasion and Intimidate need more opportunities to shine and a little more impact. Mercantile is decent enough that I think it is in a good enough spot to be a complementary skill.
5.) Re-balance Dominating: It is no secret that I am very critical of the current Dominating difficulty, my biggest gripe being that the stat and number increase severely negatively impact builds which try to minimize the amount of combat, which is now far rarer possible.
Instead of mind numbing and tedious numbers increase I would give more active feats, additional consumables, etc. What is more, instead of merely halfing the effectiveness of healing stims I would instead let them heal over time. Hard it would take 3 rounds for full effect, 6 rounds until the hypo is done healing you and finally revert the reduced amount of total healing so they heal the same as in normal. Same goes for the enemies, I hate it when the player gets treated special one way or the other, especially when it is that obvious. Furthermore I would add a few more types of stims at the doctors, maybe even just rare and expensive similar to Crawler Poison caldrops for example.
After that is done I would re-place enemies so they make sense in terms of progression and immersion. I see no reason why 6 Goliathuses need to be in front of the Hanging Rat and I for sure see no reason why you will meet Death Stalkers before normal Crawlers, ergo no more Death Stalkers down in the Core City warehouse underground during Gorsky's quest.
6.) Re-balance feats: A lot of feats are great to good but there are some which are bad to outright awful. Best example would be Snooping, which essentially wastes an entire feat slot for a little more loot and an occasional short cut, at best. If snooping would add to trap detection it would be at least fill a niche for low perception characters which struggle finding traps.
Next would be Ninja Looter and Burglar, two feats which are at best niche but actually closer to ingame LARP material. I would fuse those two into entirely new feat, change Ninja Looter to just Ninja and give it a bonus to throwing knifes. Burglar could add +10% to Stealth, lockpicking and traps in controlled areas. Maybe even 15%-20%.
Now moving on to Mental Subversion which is not worth the pick. I would merge it with Cerebral Trauma and give it a new effect, that enemy are dazed for a round after Fear, Berserk or Mental Breakdown or if they resist it so they will always have some effect.
Next on the agenda would be Quick Pockets which is not very attractive either. I would just merge it with Pack Rathound and give it a new effect and name, Quick Hands, and it would lower the AP cost of quick slot items by let's say 33%. That might be a niche but attractive ability, certainly more attractive than now.
7.) Added mechanics: I think changing weapons warrants a small AP cost. It is a big advantage the character has over NPCs with a second weapon in hand he adds a lot of flexibility and power. Switching however should cost you a little and make you think whether it is worth switching or not. Furthermore I would like to add injuries like in Fallout: New Vegas had, where you had to see a doctor and pay a fee. On top of that certain combat stims like Adrenaline should pose a risk of getting you addicted to it as well with at least noticeable drawbacks while on withdrawal.
8.) Traits: I would love to see a trait system similar to Fallout with the drawbacks being big enough that you have to think long and hard if you really want it. Best example from FO how not to design a trait is Gifted, that one was plain overpowered. Of course traits should be optional and you should be able to play without any.
9.) Expanded quest lines: To this day it annoys me that once you are done wiping out the Black Crawlers you are done with Gorsky. It sure is a cool quest line but it feels unfinished with Gorsky just sitting and waiting there in that hideout after those 3 quests are done. He did not move back to Core City to merely take over a gang hideout, I am sure he had bigger plans in mind, especially when it concerns the Protectorate which he hates with a passion.
Same goes for Oculus. Great quest line to get into its ranks, but once you are there you get 1! quest and thats it and the quest is nice and all but felt a bit of a let down once it was done. I would have loved to get some quests from different characters to expand on the mythos behind the creators of the Oculus.
Become the Invictus should have been also a bit more involved. You only find a little over a handful of enemies to get there. I think there should be twice that many at least and Garry does not really notice you until you are halfway through. Even then, you become the Invictus and you are never challenged for the title? I see no reason to get at least one more fight from a challenger afterwards. What is more would have been cool to be able to meet one or two in the Hardcore bar for some trash talk before the bloodbath begins.
10.) UI: The UI is functional but very basic in appearance. I would love to change it into a little more polished appearance, something like FO for example had where the UI mirrored the environment. That or at least different colors like Deus Ex had. I would also like to add one more filter for armors. Currently armors and weapons are in the same category.
Those are just a few "minor" things I would love to change in the game, what about you guys?
New feats: A most basic type if feat I find lacking is a bonus attribute point or points feat. Something as simple as +2 to an attribute might be welcome.
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