Urban Strife Spring 2024 Dev Blog (Episode 1)
Today we’ll reveal the scope of the main campaign and our progress towards the finish, with details about AI roles, ballistics & armor, zombification and RPG improvements. Next episode will detail additions to perks & learning, the stealth game, crafting changes, cars and travel, item durability & healing/pain.
AI Improvements at Play
We have mentioned the possibility of adding more specific AI roles in the previous articles, thanks to the new AI systems. As the work on the main campaign has progressed and we’ve started to place the actual faction on the maps, the opportunity to use such roles has materialized.
Tough enemies know new tricks
First, all bosses have received specialist bodyguards, assigned to protect them and protect them only. Most of the special “named” actors have also received medical supplies, such as bandages or boosters. And you’ll notice them making good use of them, painkillers in particular being the most effective in combat. In the example shown Court Administrator Jenkins, the right hand of the Courthouse boss, takes advantage of the decent cover and medicates on his turn after being previously injured.
Looking through the eyes of the AI
Below you can take a sneak peek into the inner workings of the AI using our debug tool - it will show the actions the AI would take if in control of our pawn. In this particular case, Samuel is both gravely wounded and exposed so "Take Cover" has the maximum score and will be the preferred move. The following on the priority list are: Health Boost (since he's so low on HP the risk of dying is imminent), Stamina Boost (it will restore AP and remove Pain debuffs) and Bandage (to stop further HP losses). But all this is dynamic and the priorities will be shuffled once the actor is in a new position, considering the new factors.
Watch your flanks!
Beside bodyguards, snipers also now have areas assigned to defend so they will be impossible to lure down from their nests. In order to eliminate them, you will need to counter-snipe them or get up close and personal. But worry not, not all AI enemies will defend the fort. We also have flankers that will actively push your flanks, trying to negate your cover. You can see below how the enemy, while having three fighters pinned by Benny on the stairs, from great cover, immediately responded by flanking aggressively, negating our position.
Cultist Zombie Herders
Finally, a very particular AI role is that of zombie herders. While the cultists do not boast much in terms of military gear, they have learned to train and manipulate the undead hordes. The herders can blend unharmed among zombies and direct them against you using noise makers, while themselves take pot shots at you from relatively safe range.
Ballistics & Armor protection model
How environment resistance works
Environment (cover) resistance in the game is divided into 5 levels from Very Low (with a value of 1) to Very High (with a value of 5). An unarmored body is considered 0 on the scale, same as cardboard or other fluff. Experience and wits is important when assessing the cover you choose, because a pile of trash will only protect you from the weakest of rounds. As a general rule, if things look flimsy and the enemy is holding a serious weapon (something better than a nailgun), you need to rethink your positioning.
Each projectile in the game has a Penetration level that is divided on a very similar scale. The graphs are subject to further balancing and changes, but they give you a rough image on what caliber goes through what type of cover. We didn’t bother adding FMJ variants to sniper rounds, since they’re already off the scale. Sniper HP variants have a -1.5 penalty, so they’re rated 3.5, but still they have enough punch to go through a car door and do massive damage.
When hitting a vehicle, the .22LR FMJ won’t penetrate (the bullet gets stopped by anything above 2.5 resistance). In the case of a 9mm (as shown below), the 9mm Hollow Point will be stopped (1.5 penetration vs 3 resistance) while the 9mm Full Metal Jacket bullet will barely penetrate (3.5 penetration vs 3 resistance), while shedding a lot of speed and damage.
How Armor Levels Work
Our body armor is modeled after the real life counterparts, with adjustments required for gameplay and fun. One thing you need to remember, besides all the math, is that once you start encountering better armored opponents the penetration factor of your rounds will be more important than actual damage. You can still KO an enemy just by shooting a lot of non-penetration bullets into his chest, but honestly we would recommend using a sledgehammer for the same result and better ammo economy. Urban Strife characters do not scale with the campaign progress, from a weakling to a bullet soaking monster. But they do start equipping better gear, as you get closer and closer to their HQ.
The armor model uses a sigmoid function with a smoothed curve where an armor is designed to “filter out” bullets with penetration levels lower than its protection factor. The curve had to be smoothed/gamified because real-life values are quite drastic and do not make for much fun when put into a game. Factions come with their own flavor of body armor, but we used as reference the military set: three tiers of armor. from Level I to Level IIIA. None of them will completely protect you. We consider a good protection a damage absorption of 50-60% for the reference round, but FMJ/HP bonuses will alter the armor resistance quite significantly.
- Level I - Basic flak jacket, designed to protect against .22 LR
- Level IIa - Light body armor, designed to protect against 9mm
- Level IIIa - Soft body armor, designed to protect against 5.56
Why is there no CTH percentage?
We have been asked a number of times why we do not use the classic Chance to Hit percentage indicator. That is because we opted for a more realistic and advanced indicator that colors each targeted body part according to the Potential Damage. The targeting gizmo will show you a gray color when there’s no chance for damage, red for a small, yellow for medium and green for full damage potential. The Potential Damage factors in both LOS and attenuation after penetrating the environment.
This is important because with true ballistics every piece of the environment matters. The shape and the strength of the materials must be accounted for - even the animation of the targeted characters. While they wait for you to take your shot the NPCs breathe and move slightly in their idle stances and this makes some body parts harder to shoot than others. An generic CTH would be, in our case, imprecise at best.
Main campaign reveal
How many maps will there be in the game?
You will play through about 15 major locations, scattered throughout the city of Urban and inhabited by various survivor groups, affiliated with one of the three major factions (cultists, bikers and remnants of the government, led by the army). On the initial run you’ll play the “vanilla” version of the map/scenario, then, once the faction war starts, the maps will change to a new setup to make the new playthrough just as interesting (details below). There will also be story and random encounters on transit maps - highways, railway tracks or forest roads. And finally, each faction will have their HQ, a major hub where combat is not allowed, but if you’re allied with them, you can make use of their facilities and workshops as you would at home.
How will replaying old maps not be boring?
Once you’ve helped one of the factions achieve control of the town, they'll become your allies and you will try to prepare the town and your shelter for the inevitable arrival of the huge undead horde coming from Atlanta. This means going back through Urban and witnessing the fallout of your actions, be it good or bad. Our maps are split into sublevels that load once certain conditions in the script are met, so while the destination might seem familiar, the site will not.
Say you did the leader of the Gas Station biker gang - your pal Snitch - a favor, and helped him fulfill his American dream of owning the California Motel. You’ll be thrilled to know that he has big plans for the place and you’ll come back to a thriving five star brothel that has replaced the mundane refugee hospital the cultists had used the place for. Actually the rating guy might’ve been drunk when giving out the stars, but you get the idea.
Good-bye Legion, here come the true zombie worshipers
Speaking of the demo, the infamous Legion has gone back to Arizona. The suburbs are now divided between cultists, bikers and the army, with a side-dish of bandits, moonshiners and zombies. Father Joseph is finally free to lead his flock of faithful followers and, unlike Caesar’s fake arena, his zombie pit is real and you’ll have a chance for a personal test. The new suburb will play differently from the demo scenario and will fit in the overall story and timeline of the game.
How much of the game campaign is ready?
So far we have completed the initial setup of level design, RPG, factions and loot for 9 of these major locations and their corresponding story encounters. That’s not counting the intro/tutorial map and your shelter that have been completely redesigned since the days of the demo. Six more locations are in the works, in various stages of design.
RPG improvements
Dialogue checks
We continually improve the story and the RPG design of the game to make sure we give the player as much agency as possible and provide a non-linear experience. We do not aim to compete with full-on CRPGs in terms of micromanagement of the characters and their progression. But we feel like a base set of storytelling tools are a must for a proper immersion. In this respect we have added dialogue checks for faction affinity, Intelligence for outsmarting and Strength for bullying the encountered NPCs into revealing their secrets.
The secrets revealed can either help you find alternative ways to solve a mission, point you on the recruitment path for certain actors or simply reveal hidden information about the faction warlords you befriend or eliminate. In the end it’s you who is going to live with the choices you’ve made so it’s advisable you make them by being as informed as you can.
Story Encounters
Beside the main story plot we have added secondary stand-alone encounters (with multiple episodes), that will add a plot twist or a bit of shade to the main campaign, but without being a game stopper. They have rewards if you play them through, some moral consequences but you can also plow through them as you would do through a normal random encounter, nothing will break.
Zombie Virus and Infection
As already announced, we have added fast zombie turning, right during combat. The condition is simple: when an actor is downed by zombies, they will go for a “finish” move - the bite. The bite does not do a lot of damage by itself, but if it is enough to kill the actor, then he/she turns into a zombie and raises the next turn.
If your recruits are bitten but survive the attack, they will be able to carry the infection for a couple of days, giving you time to pay the base doctor a visit. Letting the infection develop will result in a very nasty death. This also leads to interesting choices when faced with saving infected refugees - letting them “live” will result in a small herd of undead, while saving them will put a serious dent in the medical reserves back home. The only immune character is your avatar. That doesn’t mean you cannot be killed by a zombie, just means that you will die and not turn. Your special immunity means you’ll forfeit everyone’s chance for a cure if you die, so please do not do that.
QoL and HUD improvements
The interface is undergoing a permanent improvement, as new mechanics and features get added and also as tests reveal the need for QoL improvements. We added a lot of context actions to right click menu, the stacks now split 50/50 by default, looted ammo doesn’t fly directly into the quick pockets (that 1 arrow that always occupied the pocket now behaves properly), we have new location and NPC tags (both above the heads/spot and on the screen edges - with a directional arrow that makes locating them easier).
We finally have a proper radio system to both tune in to the chatter on the Urban airwaves and get updates/orders from base. Last but not least, we have about 200+ new NPC portraits, painted over faces generated using AI tools. There are major improvements scheduled for the Journal, especially on the Roster (to allow easier away team management) and Faction Information sections, but more on that when they’ll be ready.
The ballistic calculator has also received some love. Weapons now display the SHOCK value which in turn translates into pain (attribute penalties) and stamina loss and the fire modes will also be easier to access - with button layouts designed specifically for ranged/melee weapons. Finally, the quick pockets have received proper hover boxes that display extended information about the item equipped.
Thank you for patiently reading this far and see you next time. And do not forget to spread the word about Urban Strife - your help counts more than can you imagine!
