KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Release Thread

[Melan]

Well at least Zep thinks it exists at this stage.

It will never come out.

 

[Zep Zepo]

I watched a video...Not impressed, AT ALL.

This is no Underworld Sequel (or a "spiritual" blah blah blah herp-a-derp "successor").

UU 1 (great) and 2 (mostly) were good games...this...not even close to them.

Zep--

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Just spent a couple hours playing with the mechanics. I found two different ways to get across the chasm off the ground to the sapling using objects, abilities and spells. Pretty cool.

• Glue and objects stuck to walls / arches to use as footholds - no magic
• A row of objects gravitated/levitated into a bridge I could run/jump across

I discovered they only allow gluing of up to three objects together at a time, probably to keep people from building straight up bridges and to make it easier to design levels around known limitations.

I'm not sure why you can't catch 'debris' on fire, such as a board, but you can catch a crate on fire. Would be cool to fashion torches as you could in UU. Maybe later they will do something like that.

Over all, I am pleased with where things are at and I found the level interesting, wanting to explore the shit out of it. When you get the sapling it highlights how many bodies you have found. Next time I will see about finding all of those.

Zep it's not a 10 minute demo. I played for 2 hours and didn't explore every corner.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I watched a video...Not impressed, AT ALL.

This is no Underworld Sequel (or a "spiritual" blah blah blah herp-a-derp "successor").

UU 1 (great) and 2 (mostly) were good games...this...not even close to them.

Zep--

Well at least we can look forward to you spending time to create savegame editors for games you think are shit.

 

[Zep Zepo]

I saw it done in 10 minutes...just sayin'. Just because you're slow and methodical doesn't carry much weight.

Zep--

 

[RatTower]

I watched a video...Not impressed, AT ALL.

This is no Underworld Sequel (or a "spiritual" blah blah blah herp-a-derp "successor").

UU 1 (great) and 2 (mostly) were good games...this...not even close to them.

Zep--

What is it that you would want?

 

[Zep Zepo]

Well at least we can look forward to you spending time to create savegame editors for games you think are shit.

Grimoire is shit (and broken and.....) ...do you disagree?

Zep--

 

[Zep Zepo]

What is it that you would want?

For you to have a couple more years posting history under your belt.

Zep--

 

[Infinitron]

IMO if you set aside the expectations you might have a for a game that's been in development for two and a half years, this doesn't look or play bad at all for a pre-alpha first person game developed on a budget.

Funny that nobody here is asking what happened to the runic magic from the prototype.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Why don't you ask them, newshound.

Zep--

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=1794.msg23565#msg23565

A while ago Will posted a screenshot of an interface that looked something like a cross between UW1 and SS2. Hopefully that's still in the works.

Yep, still there, and the spellcrafting isn't gone either. We hid them both to focus on the moment-to-moment gameplay. I'm actually fiddling with the inventory and spellcrafting menu now. It's gonna be easier to use than the prototype one, which was basically a pile of runes. I'll post some screens next week, it's easy to move UI elements around so expect things to keep changing.

When it comes to the wands, think of them having the rune formulas inside them (cause thats actually what they're doing). So when you find a wand it could have a rune formula with a rune that you've never picked up before.

Regarding the deep, dark Underworld look? You'll see that represented in Fort Evidius in The Underswamp. (Sooner than you might think...)

 

[Zep Zepo]

Looking forward to more postings of "screens"

Spoiler

NOT

Zep--

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

The one concern I have at this point is that they need to retain the oppressively dark, lonely and claustrophobic vibes of UU. I would like to see that they are planning for that facet.

 

[Zep Zepo]

At least you are being somewhat honest with that post, Dr.

Zep--

 

[RatTower]

What is it that you would want?

For you to have a couple more years posting history under your belt.

Zep--

Like a clockwork.

IMO if you set aside the expectations you might have a for a game that's been in development for two and a half years, this doesn't look or play bad at all for a pre-alpha first person game developed on a budget.

Funny that nobody here is asking what happened to the runic magic from the prototype.

I thought about that yesterday. So far it looks like they completely replaced it with those magic wands in this build. But I don't think they actually dropped it. It was one of Underworld's (and in a sense even Arx Fatalis') core features and technically they already had an implementation ready.
It would make sense to focus testing on certain spells with the wands.

A thing that's currently completely missing though is equipment (other than weapons).

 

[Excidium II]

IMO if you set aside the expectations you might have a for a game that's been in development for two and a half years, this doesn't look or play bad at all for a pre-alpha first person game developed on a budget.

Funny that nobody here is asking what happened to the runic magic from the prototype.

It looks terrible. I've seen game jam games that looked better.

 

[Darkzone]

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=1794.msg23565#msg23565

A while ago Will posted a screenshot of an interface that looked something like a cross between UW1 and SS2. Hopefully that's still in the works.

Yep, still there, and the spellcrafting isn't gone either. We hid them both to focus on the moment-to-moment gameplay. I'm actually fiddling with the inventory and spellcrafting menu now. It's gonna be easier to use than the prototype one, which was basically a pile of runes. I'll post some screens next week, it's easy to move UI elements around so expect things to keep changing.

When it comes to the wands, think of them having the rune formulas inside them (cause thats actually what they're doing). So when you find a wand it could have a rune formula with a rune that you've never picked up before.

Regarding the deep, dark Underworld look? You'll see that represented in Fort Evidius in The Underswamp. (Sooner than you might think...)

This wands are a stupid idea. Runes are more cinematic and etc, therefore much superior. As an example of what sounds better:

"... then i went down the dark narrow path path with a torch in my hand. The path was a stinking and shitty dead end. I thought in the moment "shit it is a fucking lizard man toilet" as i felt something slipped under my foot.
Then as i turned around to go back, i saw something carved in the stone, in the flickering torch light. I began to rub of the dust from the carving. No it wasn't a toilet joke. Slowly it began to glow in a golden light and one word was on my mind burning like fire: Kaun."

Or does this sound better:

"... hen i went down the dark narrow path path with a torch in my hand. The path was a stinking and shitty dead end. I thought in the moment "shit it is a fucking lizard man toilet" as i felt something slipped under my foot.
Then as i turned around to go back, i saw something burriend in the shit in my flickering torchlight. I grabbed this slippery smelly thing and began to rub it clean with my hand. No it wasn't a giant dildo. It began to glow in a blue light and one word was engraved on it: Kaun."

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=1794.msg23580#msg23580

Any chance of creating custom wands?

Tim's been tweaking the magic skill designs. The last I looked in the mage playstyle tree you can change what runes are slotted inside a wand, effectively making wands quick casts. Casting one spell then another in quick succession was an issue with the prototype build, wands will help, and the new rune panel will have some form of 'last spells casted' (I'm gonna play around with a few ways to approach that).

I want to fix a few major bugs and push those out. I also want to add a "submit bug" button and bring back the feedback button (I stopped using the backend analytics service of the feedback button). But we won't be doing too many fixes to it simply because already in our development branch there are tons and tons of differences.

 

[Excidium II]

Why not just let the player save runewords? Could limit how many runewords they have memorized with a stat- oh wait no explicit stats in this RPG xDDDD

 

[duanth123]

if you set aside the expectations you might have a for a game that's been in development for two and a half years

 

[Ash]

The one concern I have at this point is that they need to retain the oppressively dark, lonely and claustrophobic vibes of UU. I would like to see that they are planning for that facet.

Thing with claustraphobia is it is counter to nice spacious level design, but hopefully we see a mix: big open caverns, and maze-like headfuck tunnel systems, and everything in between.
But yeah, the current visual style we see, while not bad, is certainly not what one would expect or realistically desire...and extrudes the damn near polar opposite of Underworld vibes, but I suppose the abstract art approach is the consequence of a limited budget; make it stylized rather than cheap-looking grit and realism.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I'm good with what is there with more grit on it. For cavernous open spaces etc. they have done a nice job with this vertical slice. I need to explore it more, perhaps there is a tunnel somewhere.

 

[hello friend]

I have yet to see a game that combines claustrophobic tunnels with good use of z-levels, that would be amazing. Various inclines and declines, odd angles, tunnels that pass over other tunnels, loops w/e, chambers with reachable and unreachable tunnels branching off at different heights and so on. A maze with freeform use of the z axis has a lot more navigatory clusterfuck potential than neatly segmented levels stacked on top of each other.

 

[Metro]

The good news is I will be able to buy this game with my social security check.

 

[SniperHF]

Finally got to try it a bit. The sluggish performance and animations actually make it hard to play. I don't get nauseous easily but I can't take more than 15 minutes of that at a time.

I actually enjoyed dodging the various Indiana Jones Style traps the most. Something focused on that alone might be an entertaining 5 hour puzzle game by itself.

The objects you interact with are very barebones, you do feel like you have to create something from nothing. I tried a bit to leverage some of the traps to my advantage with magic but didn't get anywhere. Will definitely have to play around with various items more and see what can be done. Feels like I have to retrain my brain so in that sense it's good.

The good news is I will be able to buy this game with my social security check.

Joke's on everyone.