Urban Strife - turn-based zombie survival RPG

[Alienman]

What "military" you're referring to? Legion or Army base in Port? We've debated a lot what zones to restrict, but considering the risk of the unaware players entering combat because they didn't understand they shouldn't enter a zone we decided to let the things in the demo be more lax than normal. There's still work to be done in that area.

The army base in the port.

Gonna play some more now, you guys have really nailed the combat.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Well, try firing a gun in there and see if they keep being nice.

 

[Maggot]

Finished the demo. Combat was great but the dialogue towards the end was full of typos and strange English. The comparison to Atom RPG's writing seems fitting and personally I would change "Caesar's Legion" to something a little bit more creative, like Pontius' Platoon or Cohort or something a little bit less overt.

 

[Alienman]

Finished the demo myself. First off I just want to say that I really warmed up to the story and dialogue, played it more much more focused now that I wasn't tired. I really like the whole aspect of being a sheriff - a new sheriff in town brining order to this forsaken land. The combat is excellent and I feel the damage is just right. All the weapons I got to try felt powerful, both in my own hands and when the enemy used them. It was actually scary when the enemy got their turn! One of the legion men pulverized one my guys with one strong hit. He was there one second, and in the next instant he was dead. I liked the overwatch system too, and that melee is included in that system. Had a blast setting up ambushes for zombies and bandits alike. Watching a bandit round a corner just for your man to step out and blast him in the face felt right. The animations are smooth and look great, so impressive work there!

The military guys letting you roam around now made more sense too, since I actually found a private needing help. And after helping him the officer even let me enter the quarantine zone with no hassle.

As a final thing, I just want to say that the combat plays out like a 3D version of Jagged Alliance 2, which to me is just fantastic. A real achievement to you guys. Also the AI seems pretty damn smart, using cover and height advantage to get the drop on my men. Now the hard wait for next year begins I guess!

 

[Zombra]

Very random feedback USG_Mucifikatorul

Who tucks their flannel shirt into their jeans?

I want to hold MMB to rotate camera.

"I've got the perfect job lined up for him."
Pronoun substitution would be nice, but if not, edit for gender-nonspecific language. "I've got the perfect job lined up" would have been fine.

I wish I could zoom out more. And zoom in more.

I like the character Lu Xi. The broken English foreigner was a risky choice in current year. I completely approve, not being sarcastic.

I want to be able to click on the little number that shows "Billy Bo sees 3 opponents" to see where those opponents are. Better yet, select character and press hotkey to cycle targets. My character saw an enemy a block away but *I* had no idea where they were.

I want to be able to change characters with the Tab key in inventory, not just on the main game field.

I want to be able to select individual party members with function keys instead of clicking on them. Both in game field and in inventory.

I definitely want to be able to rotate the camera during the enemy turn. Since I'm just watching the show anyway, let me get a good angle.

I became immediately lost on the first adventure map. It's not clear where these mini-objectives are. "My friend the priest lives over there, now the camera will scroll briefly to a dirty house, you memorized where that was right?"
Nope. New plan: walk around completely at random. There's not even a compass?

Unclear how overwatch works. Do I just save AP like in Jagged Alliance? I never interrupted anybody.

Note to self: if you're crouching, right click will bring up the "crawl/walk/run" menu. If you're standing up, right click means "run straight there immediately like a lunatic".

I like how you can't loot an empty container. Thank fucking god, I don't need to check every corpse and cupboard 6 or 7 times before I truly believe I got everything. Little things like this show the devs respect my time.

I couldn't see a way to do called shots e.g. headshot, arm shot. Do my characters need a special skill for that?

Alienman is right - combat is so fucking good. Congratulations!

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Speaking of the Legion thing, rather than a cheap Fallout reference, it was meant to introduce the gladiator style combat arena. Which the whole key to the mini-plot. That's why we needed the who "Roman cosplay" setup. Might consider changing Caesar/Legion name sto something else just to avoid this direct comparison, but I don't think we're copying Fallout in other respects.

The "cringe" Lu Xi dialogue is assumed. Lu Xi is by no means a caricature, she's a badass fighter and a very powerful figure in the whole story. But for her plot to work she needs to sound like a B movie refugee. Maybe it's too much for some, that can be adjusted, but she'll never speak like a Harvard graduate.

And yes, the female avatar is a very new addition and the whole dialogue tree had to be re-written for both genres. So there's bound to be a couple of missed references to "him". Thank you for pointing them out.

Keep the feedback coming, guys - this is why we put out the demo in the first place. We knew there are still loose bits and ends, stuff we missed, etc. Having the players test out the product is pure gold. This is why we don't favor the Early Access idea (at least for now). If you are bug testing our game, at least you should do it for free, not pay for the "privilege".

 

[Zombra]

Yeah, New Vegas really doesn't have a copyright on "villain group modeled after the Roman Empire".

Spoiler

Changing the guy's name from Caesar might not be a bad idea though.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

You don't really need ancient Romans reference for entertaining bloodsports when there's nothing on TV.

 

[Alienman]

Unclear how overwatch works. Do I just save AP like in Jagged Alliance? I never interrupted anybody.

You have to activate the overwatch manually, and select where you want to look. Then if an enemy moves into that area the interrupt will happen, and spend whatever AP you have saved up. So your guy can shoot multiple times. Melee works the same, except if you set up the overwatch more than a tile from your character, your character will move to that spot when the enemy enters that tile. It's a pretty cool system, you can make some really damn cool melee ambushes with it!

 

[Zombra]

So is there an overwatch button? I couldn't find it

 

[Alienman]

And yeah, a funny thing, I played the whole demo without knowing the limb-target system... I clicked past the tutorial a little too fast, and in fighting I was wondering why my dude would hit the damn zombie on the arm instead of the head. That will teach me to read tutorials next time.

 

[Alienman]

So is there an overwatch button? I couldn't find it

It's that little compass icon above the weapon fire-selector.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

So is there an overwatch button? I couldn't find it

Remember this specific help widget? :D

And yes, for the overwatch to work the enemy needs to enter the tile you're watching. If they're in tall cover they will do that in order to shoot FYI. But if they're in the open and they do not move to shoot, overwatch won't help you. And yes, it works by saving enough APs to make the shot.

 

[Nortar]

I couldn't see a way to do called shots e.g. headshot, arm shot. Do my characters need a special skill for that?

Hold down Shift before left-clicking to attack, it shows up body-part selection.

Another minor QoL thing that would be nice to have is selecting multiple characters by Ctrl+clicking on their portraits.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Not that people read these help widgets, but I think we also have it wrong in the info (it says use SHIFT to trigger precise aiming, that should read "use SHIFT+click")

 

[rusty_shackleford]

USG_Mucifikatorul Did you guys want feedback on the demo? Where am I supposed to submit it if so?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

You can leave your feedback here too, but at least the bugs should go into the website database so we don't lose track of them.

Bug Report Form:
https://www.urbanstrifegame.com/bug-report/

Player Satisfaction Survey (when you're done):
https://www.urbanstrifegame.com/demo-survey/

 

[rusty_shackleford]

You can leave your feedback here too

you might regret this

Breakdown of all my thoughts while playing, no idea how detailed you wanted feedback to be so I just wrote down everything that came to my mind.

INTRO + TUTORIAL

First thing I do in a new game is open the options menu:

• Switching to Windowed Fullscreen ignored any resolution settings, defaulting to 1080p. Set it to 4k and restarted the game fixed it, however.
• No option to limit FPS.
  
• Gameplay settings tab is blank. Assume it will fill in if I'm actually in-game, might want to disable the button if not in-game.

Moving on:

• Click 'New Game', presented with difficulty selection. No explanation of what the difficulties do. First thought is 'Does hardcore mean ironman? Or is it just harder?' Went with 'Experienced'.
• Mouse feels sluggish. Tabbed out and back in a few times comparing, definitely slower than on the desktop outside of the game. Went back to the options menu to check for an option to change UI mouse speed, doesn't seem to be one.
• Decent action intro.
• (now in tutorial mission)
• [details] button in the quest area doesn't seem to do anything, will try it again later. [collapse] and [expand] work fine.
• Thinking on it, "quest" feels a bit out of place in a non-fantasy game, maybe want to use a more modern word?
  
• Judging by the skeumorphic UI, this game is probably set in the 80s or early 90s.
• Time seems to advance while I'm doing nothing, wonder if this is just cosmetic?
• +/- and return buttons on the UI don't seem to do anything...
• Most of the UI buttons(the ones that light up when hovered over) have no tooltips, would be handy as I have no idea what they do other than an icon.
• I pressed the big orange button at the top right. It seemed like a good idea at the time, I have no idea what it did but it disappeared.
• Can't seem to use my items using a hotkey, tried 1/2/3/4 and nada.
• Spent a bit trying to use my bandages on the guy right in front of me to realize that's not the guy I'm supposed to be using them on and he's dead. Woops.
• Hovering over vehicles makes parts of them highlight. Interesting.
• Maybe 'stamina booster' should have a more medical name? I guess it's supposed to be something like adrenaline, right? I'm not a doctor.
• (character creation)
• Wanted to rotate my character while changing his hairstyle, doesn't seem to be a way to do it.
• Disappointed that the 'hair color' option doesn't change the color of the hat hair style.
• Oh, it's real time. That's why the clock was advancing, thought I was in turn-based mode or something. Duh.
• Went back and scavenged all the items I could find...
• press all the usual buttons to see if there's a highlight button, 'alt' highlights things that can be interacted with
• Found a gun on a body, gave my guy the gun and some ammo. Easy to figure out how to use it.
• Selecting your entire party seems unorthodox. I thought the "shift+drag" worked like in an RTS, but it was referring to the portraits I guess? After playing around a bit more, simply click and drag seems to work for typical rts box selection.
  
• Checked the options, 'gameplay' tab is still empty, must just be because it's alpha or whatever, ignore my earlier comment.
• No keybinding for 'select all party members', sadface.
• go to save my game, no default save name provided. Would be nice if there was so they were uniquely named(e.g., based on location/date/time) and I didn't have to name them manually.
• loaded the same savefile, checked my characters, everything seems to be fine. Noticed the game doesn't tell you anything about the savefile, though, such as level, area, etc.,
  
• can't select an item and use it on a portrait, that's... annoying.
• press 'f5', no quicksave button. Hrm.
• oh man these animations are slow
• seems like I can hit the little button below the radar button to bash people with my gun.
• zombo gave me 'fresh meat'... hm... is this going to be dangerous if I eat it?
• broke a car's windows thinking it might let me loot inside of it, didn't seem to do anything at all.
• different parts of the vehicle are indeed separate containers, looted different things from the back and front of a car.
• would be nice if all party members would move with me when I go to loot a container if they're all selected. Have to keep manually moving in case there's a zombo.
• after pressing every key I can think of, there doesn't seem to be a 'loot all' shortcut
• It would be nice if there was a way to get zombos attention without firing a gun and making a lot of noise. Like, picking a rock up and throwing it at them.
• Is there a pause button? Not even hitting escape seems to pause, I see the animations still going.
• tried to press '1' to select the first dialogue option, nada. Doesn't appear to be a shortcut for them.
• lack of any real soundscape or music during dialogue, probably just not implemented yet though
• old guy warns about looters and murderers and such, which clashes heavily with the area they're living in. If they're so undermanned, why haven't they been raided and killed yet?
• typo(knikers):
  
  ... do southerners use the word 'knickers' anyways?

also, kaylee talks like she's in her teens but she looks like she's 35

took a break here because I had to drive someone to work, will continue where I left off later with more feedback(less verbose if you want)

 

[Zombra]

So is there an overwatch button? I couldn't find it

Remember this specific help widget? :D

Serious question: what help widget? I couldn't find a tooltip or anything like that. Was there a tutorial message that flashed for 2 seconds and never appeared again?

I hammered that button a lot during combat but it didn't seem to do anything. I noticed that sometimes it was different colors on different characters, or at different times. I guess I click that, nothing apparent happens, and then I click on the game field?

EDIT: I just reopened the game and tried it and it's behaving differently than before. Overwatch works fine and in an obvious way I was alt-tabbing in and out a lot during my session last night, maybe that screwed up the interface. I wonder what else I missed!

---------------

MORE FEEDBACK HOORAY

* If the "hit location" button is Shift, please let us remap it. I mapped Shift to something else. I really want to map Hit Location to MOUSE4.

* I would DEARLY love for Crouch and Stand Up to be mappable as two different keys.
More than once I tried to crouch when I was already crouched, not only wasting lots of AP but also looking very silly in the process. In general, toggles are weak UI design imo.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Very interesting and detailed. Just some helpful pointers:

It would be nice if there was a way to get zombos attention without firing a gun and making a lot of noise. Like, picking a rock up and throwing it at them.

Try throwing an empty bottle

Is there a pause button? Not even hitting escape seems to pause, I see the animations still going.

A simple way to pause is to press the gun on the tablet and enter TB mode.

 

[Mud']

Imagine if JA3 had this type of combat. Jesus this shit is so god damn good , I don't mind the ATOM RPG tier dialogue here and there, but yeah maybe change a little the whole Legion thingy to something related but not so much that people will think "New Vegas huh".

Also how moddeable is the game going to be.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

I just reopened the game and tried it and it's behaving differently than before. Overwatch works fine and in an obvious way I was alt-tabbing in and out a lot during my session last night, maybe that screwed up the interface. I wonder what else I missed!

Yep, we have others reporting problems with fullscreen and alt-tabbing. I'd recommend Fullscreen Windowed mode if you plan to tab out a lot, that's safe.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Imagine if JA3 had this type of combat. Jesus this shit is so god damn good , I don't mind the ATOM RPG tier dialogue here and there, but yeah maybe change a little the whole Legion thingy to something related but not so much that people will think "New Vegas huh".

Also how moddeable is the game going to be.

Agreed with the Caesar thing, first thing that came to my mind was definitely FNV.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Imagine if JA3 had this type of combat. Jesus this shit is so god damn good , I don't mind the ATOM RPG tier dialogue here and there, but yeah maybe change a little the whole Legion thingy to something related but not so much that people will think "New Vegas huh".
Also how moddeable is the game going to be.

Short from releasing the source code, the access to internal mechanics will be pretty extensive. But it is a bit early to talk about that, the modding SDK will require it's own proper development post-release.

 

[Zombra]

Zombra weighs in on rusty's feedback:

Spoiler

Mouse feels sluggish. Tabbed out and back in a few times comparing, definitely slower than on the desktop outside of the game. Went back to the options menu to check for an option to change UI mouse speed, doesn't seem to be one.

Weird! On my system the mouse cursor is super sensitive, especially on the X axis. I almost posted about it. A mouse sensitivity control would be appreciated.

Thinking on it, "quest" feels a bit out of place in a non-fantasy game, maybe want to use a more modern word?

Yes. "Missions" please.

I pressed the big orange button at the top right. It seemed like a good idea at the time, I have no idea what it did but it disappeared.

End Turn. I really want a hotkey for this. Scrolling mouse all the way to the farthest corner of the screen once a turn is a poor use of my time.

Wanted to rotate my character while changing his hairstyle, doesn't seem to be a way to do it.

+1

No keybinding for 'select all party members', sadface.

That would indeed be really nice. Again I feel like function keys for individual characters and then F[max party size +1] for the whole group.

seems like I can hit the little button below the radar button to bash people with my gun.

Yeah, setting fire mode to "S" stands for "pistol whip"

would be nice if all party members would move with me when I go to loot a container if they're all selected. Have to keep manually moving in case there's a zombo.

Strongly agree. I adopted a strange behavior when looting a house. Click container, Take All, TAB, click container, Take All, TAB, just to keep everyone moving and to split up the carry weight.

also, kaylee talks like she's in her teens but she looks like she's 35

Don't kink-shame me.

--------------

Yep, we have others reporting problems with fullscreen and alt-tabbing. I'd recommend Fullscreen Windowed mode if you plan to tab out a lot, that's safe.

Thanks! I hated having my Windows toolbar at the bottom of the screen. A "borderless windowed" mode would be wonderful!