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If you could mod Underrail what would you add or change?

Sykar

Arcane
Joined
Dec 2, 2014
Messages
11,297
Location
Turn right after Alpha Centauri
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.
 
Last edited:

Black Angel

Arcane
Joined
Jun 23, 2016
Messages
2,910
Location
Wonderland
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.
Hmm, I'm not sure from where did you get the logic of "higher quality = easier to build". If we're to use logic *at all*, then high quality components would mean it needs more skilled hands to utilize and craft to its maximum potential. Imagine a high quality ingredient that can be transformed into an exquisite meal by a professional chef, do you think it will see the same treatment by an amateur cook, or that it will 'give a bonus on the amateur cook's cooking skill'?

2.) Craftsmen and rafting masters: A big pet peeve of mine is the fact there are no NPC crafters in the game. I would put them 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 crafts 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.
There are actually already plenty of NPCs like this in the game. In fact, they already do some crafting for you, it's just that they're solely quest-related like Myles putting a device to disable Plasma Walkers in Rail Crossing, and Bernard whom you can help fix Gloria and from that point onward can make super-steel for you.

But yeah, all Styg need, or modders for that matter, is to 'activate' these NPCs ability to help player characters craft some stuff. In fact, I actually think Buzzer would be the more likely candidate to do the job, since his workshop have its own zone separate from Rail Crossing.

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.

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 Burgler, 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 hower you want 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 noticable 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
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 amors. Currently armors and weapons are in the same category.
+1

Although, minor objection here would be Quick Pockets. The only reason why anyone would ever want to take this perk is if they're playing full Throwing character, but since at the moment Throwing isn't meant to be primary weapon skill (yet), there's no exact reason to take Quick Pockets at all unless you're using throwing equipment and utility items a lot. Iirc Styg promised to implement changes that would make Throwing a viable primary weapon skill, so finger-crossed for that.
 

Sykar

Arcane
Joined
Dec 2, 2014
Messages
11,297
Location
Turn right after Alpha Centauri
I forgot to add destructible Force Field to lessen its impact with its HP correlating to your effective skill and enemies being allowed to push CCed characters out of the way so you cannot create choke points for too long. I'd also slightly nerf Death Stalkers, debuff just reducing the effectiveness of healing stims by half or three quarters and slightly reduced stealth detection.
 

Sykar

Arcane
Joined
Dec 2, 2014
Messages
11,297
Location
Turn right after Alpha Centauri
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.

Hmm, I'm not sure from where did you get the logic of "higher quality = easier to build". If we're to use logic *at all*, then high quality components would mean it needs more skilled hands to utilize and craft to its maximum potential. Imagine a high quality ingredient that can be transformed into an exquisite meal by a professional chef, do you think it will see the same treatment by an amateur cook, or that it will 'give a bonus on the amateur cook's cooking skill'?

2.) Craftsmen and rafting masters: A big pet peeve of mine is the fact there are no NPC crafters in the game. I would put them 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 crafts 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.
There are actually already plenty of NPCs like this in the game. In fact, they already do some crafting for you, it's just that they're solely quest-related like Myles putting a device to disable Plasma Walkers in Rail Crossing, and Bernard whom you can help fix Gloria and from that point onward can make super-steel for you.

But yeah, all Styg need, or modders for that matter, is to 'activate' these NPCs ability to help player characters craft some stuff. In fact, I actually think Buzzer would be the more likely candidate to do the job, since his workshop have its own zone separate from Rail Crossing.

We are talking about crafting rifles, armors and energy fields. Faulty low quality material is imho far more likely to compromise your work rather than making it more difficult. Imagine the rifle of a gun. A high quality barrel would be almost perfectly straight with well done rifling. By contrast a badly done barrel would be curved and the rifling would be worse. You could say that the quality of the end product suffers, and that is what I went for, final quality being improved or worsened and overall quality being dependent more on your skill than the actual material.
 

Swigen

Arbiter
Joined
Dec 15, 2018
Messages
1,014
Awesome thread, I’ve been waiting to get this off my chest since release.

Overhaul the Tutorial Mission -
How about you just tell me before I create my character that I need to invest some points into lockpick and hacking? Why waste my goddamn time finding out the hard way?!?

Add Witcher Senses - Can’t find a fuckin’ thing in this gaem! Improve your quest markers and implement “Witcher Senses” so I don’t have any to waste time looking through the labyrinthine subway system in order to complete a quest!

Fully Voiced Dialogue - The lack of voice overs in this game is irritating as hell, having to read everything is super tedious. I’d seriously take less dialogue choices if it meant implementation of voice acting.

Make it RTwP - This would go a long way towards speeding up combat and adding a little random je ne c’est quoi to the proceedings.

3D Graphics - I wanna be able to zoom in, zoom out, and rotate the camera 360 degrees.

It’s 2019 and all of this shoulda been implemented in the first place. You only need look at the best selling RPGs of the last decade and follow suit.
 

Strange Fellow

Peculiar
Patron
Joined
Jun 21, 2018
Messages
4,015
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
If you're going to overhaul crafting, I'd much rather see the removal of RNG. Instead, what I'd do is have multiple tiers of components, say poor-average-good-great-excellent, meaning a weapon comprised of all-excellent components would effectively be the best the game has to offer (apart from uniques, which should be more numerous, but that's a different issue). Essentially the same as how crafting grenades works right now, but for weapons and armour as well. Underrail's RNG loot is very good and it doesn't bother me at all, but even so, I would prefer to kill it.
 

Saduj

Arcane
Joined
Aug 26, 2012
Messages
2,547
Awesome thread, I’ve been waiting to get this off my chest since release.

Overhaul the Tutorial Mission -
How about you just tell me before I create my character that I need to invest some points into lockpick and hacking? Why waste my goddamn time finding out the hard way?!?

Add Witcher Senses - Can’t find a fuckin’ thing in this gaem! Improve your quest markers and implement “Witcher Senses” so I don’t have any to waste time looking through the labyrinthine subway system in order to complete a quest!

Fully Voiced Dialogue - The lack of voice overs in this game is irritating as hell, having to read everything is super tedious. I’d seriously take less dialogue choices if it meant implementation of voice acting.

Make it RTwP - This would go a long way towards speeding up combat and adding a little random je ne c’est quoi to the proceedings.

3D Graphics - I wanna be able to zoom in, zoom out, and rotate the camera 360 degrees.

It’s 2019 and all of this shoulda been implemented in the first place. You only need look at the best selling RPGs of the last decade and follow suit.


You should have made the first one something about having lock picking and hacking be mini-games instead of skills.

:3/5:
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,110
Remember that door/elevator that took you to the dark caverns? I would make a mod that when you click on it, it goes to Credits.

The problem with crafting in Underrail is the same as with most crafting systems. Any system in a game is only interesting if there is some depth to it. Most crafting systems in games have zero depth because they just require you to do what you would already be doing anyway: for example find the loot drop of some crafting recipe or crafting ingredient. Since this is not really any different from finding the loot drop of the actual weapon/armor/item, it doesn't add anything except a pointless extra step in obtaining what you want.

If you want to design a good crafting system in an RPG, it would need actual skill and knowledge to craft stuff, like when to apply water to a sword blade, when to hammer, when to heat it, when to cool it down, etc. But it's questionable whether this kind of investment is worth it in an RPG. I think it belongs more to survival type games.
 

Reader

Scholar
Joined
Jan 28, 2018
Messages
191
when to hammer, when to heat it, when to cool it down
It was made to some degree in Dragon Quest XI. Entertaining, but not particularly deep.
Overall in jrpgs crafting vs loot is usually balanced with rare item drops. But it can't be done in crpgs with their limited encounters.
I liked Kingmaker's approach. It is still an extra step, but it is immersive extra step.
 

buffalo bill

Arcane
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
Messages
1,004
I'd get rid of the cutscenes and plot gated content. Even in an RPG as high-quality as Underrail, this bothers the hell out of me.
 

AW8

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I'd change it so that you can open the gate in Deep Caverns by finding a way to remove the growth, finding an access card, replace the machinery or doing some tinkering with the power station - making it a choice of what route to take instead of forcing the player to do all four.
It dragged on for way too long for a task that at the end of it is pretty mundane: opening a door (that you'd never heard about until entering the Deep Caverns).

I'd remove the arena requirement from the Core City main quest (rising in the ranks of a corporation is enough, the arena feels more like a sidequest) and also integrate the Acid Hopper hideout more logically with the world, instead of having a lever magically showing up once you've reached a certain point in the main quest.

I'd also not have Tchortlings (re)spawn out of thin air where the player can see it.
 

AwesomeButton

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Prettier UI and icons, like in the Colony Ship RPG. I spend a lot of time looking at the inventory UI and I think it lags in visual quality from the game's environments.
 

CappenVarra

phase-based phantasmist
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third dimension of course










goddamn firearm cartridges have length as well as diameter - 7.62x25 Tokarev is not the same as 7.62x39 AK 47 ammo, not the same as 7.62x54R in a Dragunov, not the same as 7.62Ă—70 Lapua Magnum - not the same, you hear me?
 
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There is a great deal I'd love to add but ultimately, the game is fantastic so if I had the means, my priorities would be these three four, they would elevate the game so much for me:

(1) Wall toggle, as I have previously argued
nKoKY3k.gif

(2) More "adventuring", ie. social interactions, politics, investigations and c&c.

(3) "soften"/diversify the DC transition.

(4) mod tools, ie. level editor, dialogue and quest editor.
 
Last edited:

Sykar

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Turn right after Alpha Centauri
very low skills having a small chance to ruin the product if you attempt something rather sophisticated.
this will cause players to savescum.

Why would I care about retards do pray tell?

I'd change it so that you can open the gate in Deep Caverns by finding a way to remove the growth, finding an access card, replace the machinery or doing some tinkering with the power station - making it a choice of what route to take instead of forcing the player to do all four.
It dragged on for way too long for a task that at the end of it is pretty mundane: opening a door (that you'd never heard about until entering the Deep Caverns).

I'd remove the arena requirement from the Core City main quest (rising in the ranks of a corporation is enough, the arena feels more like a sidequest) and also integrate the Acid Hopper hideout more logically with the world, instead of having a lever magically showing up once you've reached a certain point in the main quest.

I'd also not have Tchortlings (re)spawn out of thin air where the player can see it.

And also expand upon that quest series. It takes like 5 quests and you are a trusted member of the corporation, I guess that is why the arena was a tie in.
 
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Jan 1, 2011
Messages
584
I want a way to sort blueprints. Let me put recycle/extract humour/process plant/repair kit at the very top of the list so I don't need to scroll around to reach them, since I use them a million times more than the other ones. Actually, let me make my own folders. Those four can go in the regularly used folder. Semi regular blueprints like grenades or special crossbow bolts go in their folder. Blueprints that I only use when I'm upgrading my equipment like goggles or boots go in the rarely used folder.
It'd be a simple change but it'd make me a lot happier. Having every single blueprint in one giant cluttered list isn't great.
 

Black Angel

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Make it possible to fix the elevator so you can leave and come back to the Deep Caverns as you please.
I think this would be fine if some things changes down in Deep Caverns once you return down there. Like the remnants of the Institute decided to storm Faceless base, and depending on what you've done before going up the elevator either the Faceless or the Institute remnants are wiped out. If the Institute is gone, you lose access to the trader, while if the Faceless is wiped out and you haven't befriended the Institute the whole warehouse areas would be filled with hostiles.
 

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