KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Alienman]

Every game needs one

 

[thesheeep]

I thought only games with modding need one.

 

[grimace]

There's a livestream now. On steam?

Update 2 is live and available to play now?

 

[BEvers]

Seeing the lead designer on Thief and Ultima Underworld 2 in a Fallout 4 shirt, talking about the fantastic depth and complexity of Underworld Ascendant, just drives home how far these guys have fallen.

 

[grimace]

https://www.youtube com/watch?v=VSv9dP7JvJg
Unlisted video.

They connected the dungeon.

The lighting system has be redone.

Exploration is "key".

They added AI to the bad guys.

Large list of verbs and hundreds of improvements.

Also, 75% off ...

 

[Space Nugget]

Fallout 4 t-shirt?

 

[Morgoth]

Fallout 4 t-shirt?

Tim: "Hey, if I just keep whoring myself out enough with Bethesda shirts maybe Todd will take notice and hire me!"

 

[Space Nugget]

Fallout 4 t-shirt?

Tim: "Hey, if I just keep whoring myself out enough with Bethesda shirts maybe Todd will take notice and hire me!"

Wouldn't that make Emil jealous, though?

 

[Morgoth]

I'm afraid Emil will just have to be content with wearing plain shirts lest direct attention to his bitch tits.

 

[grimace]

Found the Update 2 patch notes:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/692840/announcements/detail/1750114627288546134

Thank you for your continued support of Underworld Ascendant!

We have been hard at work on Update 2 and have focused our efforts on the overall structure of the Abyss, the player journey, AI and other gameplay improvements. We believe these changes will significantly improve the overall player experience, especially when starting a new game.

We hope you enjoy this update and please continue to provide your feedback.

Spoiler

The Stygian Abyss renovated

• The world is now a series of interconnected levels, accessible through The Grand Staircase. Updated quest flow now focuses on important narrative quests that highlight both new and refined story and content, while allowing the player to freely explore the environment and optional side-quests.
  
• As a result of this major change, we highly recommend that you start a new game to experience it. That said, if you want to start from where you left off, your old save games will still work and you will start at a roughly similar place in the new story progression.

Player experience improvements highlights

• Updated enemy patrol paths and lighting pass in all levels to enhance tactical stealth gameplay, and enemy population overhaul/refinements on all main quests.
  
• New and streamlined story elements along main critical path, with supplemental story elements moved to explorable space.
  
• The Vault of Nyx, the final level encounter, gameplay and clarity improvements.

Meta Game updates

• The Doom Counter has been refined to better ramp the type and difficulty of creatures that appear, and now allows players to complete the game without having to set it back more than once in an average playthrough.
  
• Players no longer need to gain Faction Favor or Influence to trigger the final encounter of the game, though Faction Favor still provides benefits in trade.
  
• New games can now choose a difficulty level. All old save games will be treated as “Normal” difficulty.

Save Game System
We made some additional enhancements and refinements to the save game system based on your feedback:

• Players can now use F5 to quick save and F9 to quick load said quick save.
  
• Players are now asked for confirmation if they are about to overwrite an existing save.
  
• Clarity pass on the text in the Save menu to improve usability.
  
• Also a load game panel clarity pass. It will also now show difficulty of each save game.

AI

• Updated enemy patrol paths and AI behavior models to improve their reaction to player actions
  
• Enemies will no longer do more than one in-combat emote in a row, which makes them much more aggressive.
  
• Enemies will flee less often than before.
  
• Animuses now alert all nearby undead when they are being attacked.
  
• Lizardmen casters will no longer cast while on the ground or getting up.
  
• Lizardmen will now be more aggressive.
  
• Better wandering for deep slugs and rats.
  
• Skeletons will no longer attack torches that damage them. Also reduced torch damage radius for when creatures walk by them.
  
• Enemies now have more personality in their idle time.

Loot and Items

• Standard trunks are now smaller to reflect that they don’t hold treasure on the level of the mighty Typhon chests. Removed the sparkly “treasure” effect when you open a trunk. Celebrations are for actual treasure chests.
  
• Trunks that are too low-level to hold much loot will now (rather than being so empty) have more filler items such as pots, which will sometimes contain coins.
  
• Clarity pass on item descriptions to make it easier to understand what they do.
  
• Magical items now have a different color name so they stand out more in your inventory.
  
• Player’s speed percentage is now listed in the inventory screen so you can tell if items you have equipped are slowing you down (or speeding you up).
  
• Item tooltips for equipment that improves the wearer’s armor percentage now include a notation about that.
  
• Updated Aelita’s trade menu to make it easier to understand how much silver you will get for a trade, and how much silver Aelita has available to trade.
  
• When you mouse over an item, it will be compared to the same type of item you have equipped, if any.
  
• Right clicking on items in your inventory behaves the same as double clicking. This also applies to trade where it will move it to/from the offer table.
  
• When moving a stack of items within their inventory, the player is no longer prompted to pick how many they like to move. To see that pop up, hold down shift and click on the stack of items.

Gameplay Including Movement, Combat, Stealth, Magic and More

• Additional refinements to combat feel and responsiveness, including removing an animation step so that players aren’t moving forward after an attack ends, which tended to interrupt combat flow.
  
• Creatures may be knocked down during combat and get back up to continue the fight. Make sure to finish your foes!
  
• Several creature types now have small weaknesses to extended melee combat. This will make encounters a bit more eventful in cases where the player’s attacks are underpowered for their foe.
  
• Chains and ropes will be much easier to swing on.
  
• Fixed issue where you would get stuck on chains in certain situations.
  
• Removed some lights that didn’t have an extinguishable source and were making stealth difficult in spots.
  
• Further refinement of player movement
  
• If the player walks into a heavy object (like a table) it no longer knocks over. Instead the player will step on top of it. This also applies to crates! Running into stuff will still knock it over, of course.
  
• There are more mana motes in the world. Use the Mana Sight skill to spot them and keep your supply full!
  
• Player’s maximum mana is increased.
  
• Fixed the Blink spell getting stuck on light obstructions (e.g. crates), and made it more reliable in general. Adjusted it to Level 3 instead of Level 2.
  
• Fixed the Magic Fist spell’s collision with physics objects to apply forces as intended.
  
• Fixed Outcasts’ fleeing behavior so they don’t smoke bomb away from the player if they are allies (as with summoned or charmed Outcasts).
  
• Fixed long-press of the interact button on doors (as if you were trying to pick the door up), to lock or unlock them.
  
• Friendly lizardmen now show up on the map. You will also get a warning saying “Saurians are your allies!” if you accidentally hit one.
  
• General pass on tooltips to ensure they appear where expected and make sense.

Levels and Quests

• Players will be able to reach the lower depths of the Abyss more quickly in the game’s overall progression, if they choose to do so.
  
• Removed the intro sequence with Cabirus so players can get to the action faster.
  
• Implemented subtitles for the ending cinematics.
  
• A lighting pass across the entire game to better support gameplay.
  
• More improvements to the main quest line to make sure there are no dry spots.
  
• Narrative and clarity pass on the Vault of Nyx so players can better understand what needs to be done to complete the final mission in the game.
  
• Players who miss the “Cautious First Steps” feat in Pluto’s Gate can still qualify for it by running any subsequent quest undetected.
  
• Removed the “Weaponless” Side Bounty from the rotation as it’s not applicable to the new Quest flow.
  
• New challenges and rewards to discover in all levels!
  
• Lots more holes filled!

Skills

• Fixed the Haste skill so only characters with the skill get its benefit.
  
• Some special attacks now knock the targeted enemy back.
  
• Skill Points are now called Skill Points on the Skills screen, (not Memora).
  
• Clarity pass on skill descriptions to make it easier to understand what each skill does and how to use them.
  ○ Known issue: the Mighty Blow, Cleave, and Fists of Iron skill chain descriptions sometimes leave out that they apply to axes & maces, swords, and unarmed attacks respectively.
  
• Added a reminder on the Skills screen that the player needs to perform Feats (found in the Compendium) to earn skill points.
  
• Fixed the Unseen Dash and Dash Farther skills’ handling of rough terrain. Unseen Dash should skim over terrain, while Dash Farther will hop over gaps entirely.
  
• Increased the bonus to mantel height granted by the Athletic Ascent skill.
  
• Improved clarity for skill descriptions and skill panel.

Misc

• General performance improvements to improve load times, increase FPS and reduce hitching.
  
• Players can now cycle through hints on loading screens by hitting the E button.
  
• Brightness bar on character creation extended so you can make the game even brighter.
  
• A Compendium now appears in the Tab menu. The Hints and Secrets tabs have been folded into the Compendium. In addition, one section lists all the available Feats in the game and tracks which feats have been completed. Another section will track all of the foods the player has eaten and their effects.
  
• New VFX on Memora.
  
• New VFX on Animus Hearts.
  
• Players will no longer sound like they are plunging deep beneath the water when they splash through a puddle.
  
• Fix for “Bark & Bite” achievement not firing right (the Ripper was getting the achievement instead).
  
• (Trade) Fix for splitting stacks during trade destroying stacks.

 

[Space Nugget]

I'm afraid Emil will just have to be content with wearing plain shirts lest direct attention to his bitch tits.

Spoiler

 

[MasterLobar]

Someone call the cops! Looks like we have a hostage situation here.

 

[Zep Zepo]

The skinny AIDS/Cancer guy on the left never looks at the camera. He's reading a script that's off screen.
And the folded arms that never unfold...the body language there is telling.

Zep--

 

[Space Nugget]

The skinny AIDS/Cancer guy on the left never looks at the camera. He's reading a script that's off screen.
And the folded arms that never unfold...the body language there is telling.

Zep--

"Game Director"

 

[MasterLobar]

As a backer, this is what is freaking me out the most:

Did design direction change in 4 years...yes for 100 different reasons. I just won't apologize for that. Good call or bad, this is how development works.

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=8580.msg38805#msg38805

They promised all sorts of amazing stuff in order to get people's money, then delivered an unfinished broken mess that despite a 75% price cut sold less than 20,000 copies with a median playtime of 9 minutes (according to SteamSpy).

But still they see nothing wrong with the "change of design direction" which is their euphemism for "broken promises".

 

[Zep Zepo]

As a backer, this is what is freaking me out the most:

Did design direction change in 4 years...yes for 100 different reasons. I just won't apologize for that. Good call or bad, this is how development works.

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=8580.msg38805#msg38805

They promised all sorts of amazing stuff in order to get people's money, then delivered an unfinished broken mess that despite a 75% price cut sold less than 20,000 copies with a median playtime of 9 minutes (according to SteamSpy).

But still they see nothing wrong with the "change of design direction" which is their euphemism for "broken promises".

Wow...just wow.

I think that post sums up their company

ie: We don't give a fuck what you think. Deal With It!

Man, that's pure arrogance and disregard for your paying customers right there.

They dug their grave, they are shouting obscenities at us from the hole, but still, we are tossing dirt on it, as they deserve.

Zep--

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=8580.msg38820#msg38820

So, I know I can be a bit dry humor and direct that it can come off as flippant...that is not the case. I don't beat around the bush tho.

Sorry if 'those people' came of like a slam, it wasn't meant to be...and the last post is pretty much just a joke. Please realize that for us-developers we have done our grieving, and can't wallow in the failure, we have to push on. Trust me, Thanksgiving this year was a bummer. So am I personally still pissed off and angry...nah. I just can't be, I have moved on, hopefully with clearer vision and trying to finish this thing up. It does feel calmer and happier around here now. Update 2 is a step closer to the game some of us saw 4 years ago. As I said in the other forum, the thing that really sucks about game development - unlike other forms of entertainment, is the development cycle is so damn long. For this team it will be what 20 months to 3 years for another swing at the plate.

The how we got here, development process exc, I just will not comment on that- sorry, but that is like commenting on my family and these people I see just as much as my family. I mean I have to stare at Tim all day long...for years...and years...my god...

Looking back at the kickstarter, I see every thing we dropped, and remember for the most part the why. My personal favorite, a living ecology, frankly was a whole game in itself, and would have become the only feature we worked on if that stayed. Could have we done a better job of 'faking it'? Yeah.

As for dialog trees: This is how I remember it. We don't like them...especially in FPS games and wanted to see if we could get by without them - i.e. some other solution. The idea was if we couldn't --which we didn't--we would come back to the tried and true. Because of the 100 other fires, that system was left on the floor for better or worse.

As for community- I can only speak for myself. When I got feedback from the community on parts I was working on, I reacted to it. If any of you know my past, community matters to me, 2 MMO's worth of community helped me out time and again over my career.

Remember please that my comments are mine and mine alone and do not reflect the opinion of the company exc. exc. Lucky for us that we can be ourselves and not always just be PR pieces.

 

[luj1]

>UA is a disaster
>58 pages

 

[BEvers]

>UA is a disaster
>58 pages

 

[Got bored and left]

>UA is a disaster
>58 pages

Disasters are fascinating ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[grimace]

http://www.trhickman.com/underworld-ascendant/

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=928.15


The Underworld Ascendant novel will be available any day now.

 

[Max Heap]

Is that a reference to Mason Verger?
I'm pretty sure he said the same thing about cutting up his own face.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Us: SHUT UP RETARD
Them; HURR DURR, WE'RE ONLY PRETENDING TO BE RETARDED.

That's his defense?

Sheesh.

Zep--

 

[Space Nugget]

Decided to check the new update for myself. Improved performance so far. Character movement still jerky/janky, for some reason. More "playable", I guess.

Things that happened:

• Killed a skeleton, its body "ragdolled" upwards.
• Burned a crate, the game crashed.
• Left something burning in a fire (a crate or an urn, can't remember now -- possibly both), it blew up sending pieces flying like shrapnels (no damage).
• While facing a closed door, a skeleton on the other side started attacking, cliping through, and hitting me.
• Tried a random combination of runes, got "poisoned", lost segments of the health, almost dying. Then used the rune combination to heal myself. And died.

 

[Tweed]

These people need to get the chair.