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Underrail: Expedition Interview

Diggfinger

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
1,200
Location
Belgium
Is Expedition more combat oriented or more story or C&C oriented? The best quests in Underrail involved competing perspectives, a "slow-burn" pace with the investigations and bits of information. Sadly, there weren't many of those. Will we be getting such?

Lore in Underrail is very rich and to me very believable, with lots of myth and mystery surrounding events and entities. I have always wondered about the inspiration for these and what, if any, the real-life parallels were. Can you share anything, both from Underrail and Expedition?

Will Jetskis spill over into the base game as well?

How does Underrail in its first released form (post-Early Access) as well as its final form with the upcoming Expedition compare to your original vision back when you first started working on Timelapse Vertigo? Were there things you wanted to but didn't or couldn't do for whatever reason? Does Expedition contain anything that you planned, designed or intended early on but eventually left out of Underrail?

For instance, you started on Timelapse Vertigo as a RTwP before switching to TB based on feedback. How do you feel about that now when you look back?

What was the idea behind the original name "Timelapse Vertigo"? It has always made me think of a rather different vision than the game at release, especially looking back after having played it. Perhaps one with more Biocorp, Faceless, Oculus, "Godmen" and quantum mysteries stuff than Tchort and endless caves?

At what point did Tchort come into the picture? Was it a later addition or something you had in mind from early on? What were the influences for it (well, besides Lovecraft, perhaps)?

There is a very varied and sometimes unusual lingo between the different groups in the game. How did you come up with these, what influence did Serbian (or any other language) did have on this? With examples where applicable please! The naming conventions within the Institute of Tchort in particular were so original and captivating to me and I couldn't help think of religious influences, probably in a negative way. Is that correct?

Can you talk a little bit about Kokoschka of Free Drones, as well as this West Underrail he speaks of? He sounded like a typically traditional Balkan guy to me, and therefore like breakig the 4th wall, though that might also be my bias. There is a definite reflection of Balkan cultures in some parts of the game, and I have always wondered about how this relates to you personally? Will we get more of that influence in Expedition? I can't help but expect, what with the name of choice, "Black Sea".

Would appreciate if all questions could be answered <3

See question 10
Styg talks more about how his environment influenced the game here on Matt Chat

Furher questions:

Not necessarily future plans but more like entertaining thoughts: Where does the idea of Underrail go next in your mind, beyond the second add-on after Expedition? Not concrete plans but what you feel like doing or simply imagine. Continuing the story? Another single character experience? A more tactics oriented party experience? More/less story/branching? Exploring different game mechanics or styles altogether? Bigger/better graphics? Anything.

Based on your previous posts, you seem to detest the idea of making modding in Underrail possible, beyond the amount of work it would entail to polish, document and release the tools, like you don't want to enable any authorship over the game to others as if to protect it from "outside taint". Would that be a correct assessment? I guess I am asking because the game is truly asking to be modded, with new environments, NPCs, quests and writing. How does the idea of others breathing new life into your baby sound to you? How do you look at the popularity (and longevity) of modding in other games? Is it something you would ideally do at any point, time and resources permitting?

Also not future plans: do you have any other game concepts in your mind that you are evaluating or think of maybe doing at some point?

Just a side note: a FO:T or Dungeon Rats type of 3-6 character tactics game would be an amazing choice, a lot of people would agree I'm sure. Such a game would also lend itself very well to modding :wink:

Styg clearly said he wont talk about future plans.

Final question: We need a proper money-sink in the game economy: hirable mercenaries. Hire them and send them to their death while you enjoy your popcorn from afar. The ultimate pacifist playthrough. Will you do it?

You can keep one or two with you as bodyguards to most places (morr expensive) or tell them to meet you in a specific place at a specific entry point for your next visit.

Mercs that you hire and survive long enough around you level up and increase your reputation with the mercs, making you a reliable contractor, keep hiring rates stable and unlock better mercs. Frequent loss of mercs, however, drop your rep and inflate the rates for future hires.

Yeah ok, wasn't serious, the scope and the style of the game would likely be a whole other level with too many design considerations, but it would be so cool.

Check out Stygs Matt Chat interview. He clearly doesn't like squad-based games that much so doubt he will be making one.
 

epeli

Arcane
Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
719
But the question about the size of the name game remains valid indeed, especially since the interview will be published for people not frequently using the Codex to read as well

As you wish. Maybe you'll get some interesting tangents on the answer to that question. My line of reasoning was that it wouldn't be the most interesting interview question, since many of those numbers are in Steam/GOG store pages. Public marketing material.

That said, the store pages were written quite some time ago and as you might have noticed from the delays, Styg isn't the best at estimating how big something ends up being. Hopefully they'll get updated before the release. Especially the system requirements need some sorting out.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Q5

Is there anything in the expansion (content or systems) that's meant to address complaints people had about the base game, such as walking-speed and lack of fast-travel.

IMO you should remove this part. I think those are kind of petty issues and I wouldn't want him to limit his response to those issues alone.

If walking speed/fast-travel is something of particular interest to you, make that a separate question.
 

Drowed

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
1,676
Location
Core City
Q5

Is there anything in the expansion (content or systems) that's meant to address complaints people had about the base game, such as walking-speed and lack of fast-travel.

IMO you should remove this part. I think those are kind of petty issues and I wouldn't want him to limit his response to those issues alone.

If walking speed/fast-travel is something of particular interest to you, make that a separate question.

I mean, that's an absurdly common criticism of the game. Not only here, but also in STEAM's comments, on the same level as the absence of the global map was in the release. The map "problem" was resolved, so I don't see in what sense this wouldn't be an extremely relevant question, since it affects a large number of players and it's been commented on a lot. I think that's literally the most widely raised question about the game when someone decides to criticize it.
 
Joined
Sep 18, 2013
Messages
1,258
Diggfinger you little dickfinger, you asked for questions, and then you nerfed my questions!
rating_rage.gif
 

The Wall

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck Zionist Agent
Joined
Jul 19, 2017
Messages
3,023
Location
SERPGIA
Hi Codex broes and broesephines! Do you need services of Incline Courier who lives on same city map as Styg and who once was granted visa to Stygland but he completely forgot about it because of Age of Decadence playthrough and real life issues? If invite hasn't expired I could go to Castle Styg as soon as tomorrow, but tomorrow is probs not right timing (?) and deliver interview and pictures of Styg's prestigious rakija collection. Papa Styg ofc has to bless everything first
 

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