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Game News Underrail Dev Log #68: The Psi Question

Infinitron

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Tags: Stygian Software; Underrail

Styg has gotten some criticism for the changes he's making to the psi system in Underrail. Some people have even him accused of *gasp* Sawyerism. Apparently he found it important enough to address in a new development update. According to Styg, the psi overhaul is in line with changes he's made to the game in the past, but because it's come so late, he's decided to keep a legacy branch available for people who want to keep playing with the old system.

Hi guys,

On September 7th the psi update will be release on the main branch, but before that happens I want to briefly address this controversial change again and also offer a compromise.

First I'd like to restate that the reason the psi was reworked was not primarily because of its power, though it will reign that in a bit as well. I will not list all the major arguments I've given in the previous dev log here again, but the sum of it is that the psi is too cheap to spec in, in comparison to what it offers, and that there is no way to expand upon it without even further overloading it with combat versatility. There were multiple ways to address it and I went with what I think fits well. I went in a bit too hard with the restrictions, which I have since eased on a bit (check out the patch notes for details), but the point of the experimental build was to tweak these numbers and mechanics anyway. I think it's in good place now, where both the (now somewhat nerfed) pure psi wizards and hybrids are viable, though they will require more management in terms of resources and psi selection.

Now in terms of adding more management to the psi build, one could argue that this is adding unnecessary tedium, but if look back at the history of Underrail's development you will find that we do tend to add these sort of complexities and restrictions to our mechanics as we flesh them out. Player is intended to have to pay attention and do some busywork in order to keep his character going. There used to be time when we had no weight restrictions, no selling restrictions, and at one point guns didn't even require ammo, though, to be fair, that was before the game was even available to play to the public. So you may not like this part of our design approach, but it is not at all inconsistent with what we did in the past.

The difference here is, however, that the game has been released for a long time and that the way the psi currently works has been something that's been firmly established. I will concede to the argument that it may not be fair to change it at such a late time. I should have done it way sooner, back when I added the last batch of psi abilities in the late early access stage, but I didn't and I don't have a good excuse. I do, however, still maintain that this is a good and necessary change that will benefit the game in way of build diversity, especially in the long run, even if it comes a bit late.

But for those that are firmly against this change, or maybe just want to finish their current cave wizard rampage, I've made a separate Legacy branch (on both platforms) that will permanently host 1.1.1.6 version of the game. It will receive no updates and no other version of the game will ever be preserved in this way in the future (don't worry, no further major mechanical changes are planned anyway). If you do hop between the version be advised that, as always, saves of a higher version are not compatible with older version of the game. So if you intend to keep playing on this version (either temporarily or permanently), you can switch now.

I hope that this compromise will be agreeable to most of you.

Cheers.
As the update states, the new psi system will be leaving beta on September 7th.
 

Drowed

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I've made a separate Legacy branch (on both platforms) that will permanently host 1.1.1.6 version of the game. It will receive no updates and no other version of the game will ever be preserved in this way in the future (don't worry, no further major mechanical changes are planned anyway).

Well, that sounds like the best possible scenario. Styg leaves an old version officially available for the game, which for all intents and purposes is already finished, and continues with small mini-updates of it for some time. I mean, at this point I'm not expecting any big new expansion for the game, I assume that his next real project is Infusion, which is something entirely separate, right?

So it's not like people who decide to keep the previous version will be missing anything significant, unless I've understood something wrong.
 

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I've made a separate Legacy branch (on both platforms) that will permanently host 1.1.1.6 version of the game. It will receive no updates and no other version of the game will ever be preserved in this way in the future (don't worry, no further major mechanical changes are planned anyway).

Well, that sounds like the best possible scenario. Styg leaves an old version officially available for the game, which for all intents and purposes is already finished, and continues with small mini-updates of it for some time. I mean, at this point I'm not expecting any big new expansion for the game, I assume that his next real project is Infusion, which is something entirely separate, right?

So it's not like people who decide to keep the previous version will be missing anything significant, unless I've understood something wrong.

Yes. Although in addition to the psi system changes, he was also adding new waterways content in the new update. It would be best if that was made part of the Legacy branch also.
 

luj1

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I hope that this compromise will be agreeable to most of you.

Cuck move imo. As a developer you shouldn't care what others think. You should just have a vision and follow it. He is definitely going down the path of Sawyerism. Trying to please everybody never turns out well. Fun and vision > balance and accessibility. Asymmetry is the lifeblood of games.
 

luj1

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It just means he cares about his work. Cleve does this too and no one is complaining. Offering support for your creations is good, there are many teams which are quickly abandoning their projects. The problem here anyway is that he is overanalyzing. Like your pet Sawyer who literally went on tours to mystify his own failures.
 

Roguey

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It just means he cares about his work. Cleve does this too and no one is complaining. Offering support for your creations is good, there are many teams which are quickly abandoning their projects. The problem here anyway is that he is overanalyzing. Like your pet Sawyer who literally went on tours to mystify his own failures.
Grimoire was released three years ago which is still within the realm of reason. Five is insanity.
 

Drowed

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Grimoire was released three years ago which is still within the realm of reason. Five is insanity.

Also, Underrail was released in a considerably "stable" state and Styg added a lot of content to the game, even without counting the expansion. Cleve was plugging all 300 holes in the code he dug from the pyramids of the Egypt. These are different situations, but honestly, whatever the case, I'm glad that the developers keep dedicating themselves to their projects even after the release.
 

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Cuck move imo. As a developer you shouldn't care what others think. You should just have a vision and follow it.
You should have a vision and follow it, no matter what anyone says - which Styg did. He made the changes he wanted to, just adjusted numbers a bit, which is normal.
But if something is very controversial among those interested in the game, offering an alternative to finish current games at a very low cost (development-wise) is nothing I'd consider a sign of lacking vision.

If he had taken back his changes due to outrage, that would've been a different thing. But he didn't take anything back.
 
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Styg
You are a bro for supporting your game after half a decade, whereas msot developers jump pump and dump it after enough sales.

You are also a cuck for bending to gobble up sawyerist agenda.

You made a psionist work like a quasi-vancian caster. What his brain isn't big enough to learn and use all the PSI powers? BOOOH.

Also lame compromise bro. you should have gone one way or the other and tell the whiners to suck it up.
 

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