Urban Strife - turn-based zombie survival RPG - now available on Early Access

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Actually these were the source videos for the Steam gifs, nothing to do with Twitter here, but I know what you're saying. Call it a test, next time we'll stitch them together in a single video long enough for the freaking HD encoder to have time to wake up.

 

[Eyestabber]

Are backers/beta testers or anyone actually playing this right now?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

The newer builds are tested internally only so far.
We will announce any new public playtests on all the channels, don't worry.

 

[Üstad]

Is this game similar to Jagged Alliance 2? Also is there cover system duing fights?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Urban Strife is inspired by JA2 and Dead State (or The Walking Dead, if you wish to extrapolate on the zombie thing).
And it has the added benefit of the UE4 engine, aka true ballistics and realistic cover (not just a roll of the dice).

Here's an Kordanor, one of our beta testers, explaining the difference:
https://youtu.be/xEZIsfQcE6s

 

[Eyestabber]

Kinda reminds me of Aimnas for JA2 which is a good thing. Basically there is no THC calculation, only bullet trajectory and the game tells you how likely it is for the trajectory to deviate. Hit/miss can only be ascertained after the projectile is actually simulated by the game. Are my impressions somewhat accurate?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Yep, pretty much that. There are variations but they come from caliber, type of gun, cover material, etc.

And skill of the shooter, ofc.

 

[Üstad]

Yep, pretty much that. There are variations but they come from caliber, type of gun, cover material, etc.

And skill of the shooter, ofc.

Why no THC though? Does it make the game actually deeper and more tactical?

 

[agris]

Yep, pretty much that. There are variations but they come from caliber, type of gun, cover material, etc.

And skill of the shooter, ofc.

Why no THC though? Does it make the game actually deeper and more tactical?

If by THC you mean a simple numerical representation of the likelihood that your shot will connect, that is still presented to the player in US. It's just that there are many factors taken into account, a large one being player-skill (I imagine). But even the most skilled shooter is going to have trouble landing a shot on a 100% prone NPC entirely blocked by a concrete slab.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

We usually refer to that as CTH (Chance to Hit). And it is indicated, both textual and graphical by the target gizmo. But the calculations behind that are a bit more detailed.

We have THC too, but it's the hydroponics variant and it's meant to soothe the nerves of scared residents.

 

[Harthwain]

And it has the added benefit of the UE4 engine, aka true ballistics and realistic cover (not just a roll of the dice).

You ought to emphasise this more.

 

[agris]

And it has the added benefit of the UE4 engine, aka true ballistics and realistic cover (not just a roll of the dice).

You ought to emphasise this more.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Well we showed how different guns/calibers penetrate (or don't) various materials in quite a few videos. Not sure if we really showed how projectiles lose kinetic energy over distance but we can do that too.
We are proud of our ballistics but that's like core stuff now. The thing is working as intended, is easy to expand/mod, what else is there to say.

 

[Alienman]

USG_Mucifikatorul What do you and the rest of developer team think of JA3? If you have seen the new stuff, of course.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

They showed a couple of minutes of edited pre-alpha footage. What can one say after seeing that? It was also a bummer that they didn't actually play the game on stream at Gamescom, tbh. When they release a demo or at least show real gameplay we can form an opinion.

Other than that, it is great that THQ Nordic put forward a decent budget (at least we assume they did) and hired a good studio to handle the task. We'll see if that was enough soon enough.

 

[Alienman]

Are you referencing this video:



It does show a lot, but not live at least.

 

[luj1]

I can't help but laugh when looking at models in the character creation screen - for some reason they look like gorillas to me. It's probably the arms.

high ape index

 

[luj1]

Urban Strife will be amazing. Probably the RPG im looking forward the most right now

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Look...



This is Urban Strife @ Gamescom in 2017. Five years ago, we had a playable demo already. Why? Because we felt this particular niche of players can't really be fooled by fancy trailers and marketing smoke and mirrors. I suggest JA3 devs keep this in mind.
Also, they should honor the JA2 tradition of having a demo years before the game is ready to release, a demo people will play until they wear thin their hard drives, like we all did back in the 90s.

This is the Way.

 

[Alienman]

Sure, but you can see some of the mechanics. That was all I was curious about.

 

[luj1]

Basically there is no THC calculation, only bullet trajectory and the game tells you how likely it is for the trajectory to deviate. Hit/miss can only be ascertained after the projectile is actually simulated by the game

I like this system

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Do you have an estimate release window? Still 2022?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Estimate is the key word. We still need to hire more people to ramp up production, but senior game developers are hard to come by. And we can't afford (timewise) to train juniors. We'll see. We're making good progress at least.

 

[Eyestabber]

And we can't afford (timewise) to train juniors

You need experience in order to gain experience so you can qualify for a job that requires experience.

Sorry, couldn't let that pass.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

We have nothing against training juniors, we had our share (hence the well known issues with gorilla hands and others) but we're in crunch zone and juniors require a time budget that's quite low atm.