Underboard is a game with a lot of different stats, one of the reasons for this is because we want character archetypes to have layers of multiplicative effectiveness, like "effective health" for tanks being the result of multiple stat interactions for example. A separate reason is because we want all stats to have pros and cons, this gives them an identity and allows synergies and counters to emerge.
In general, more investment should reward more power, but if you're scaling a given stat, at some point there should be a different stat that becomes more effective to scale rather than keep scaling the same one.
In a previous patch we added Health Gain and Shield Decay to solve the issue about characters being immortal by generating too much Healing or Shield. This basically made Health and Shield lose effectiveness in longer combats.
We later changed Health Gain to Health Loss, making more damaged characters have a lower amount of Health they could recover, instead of simply recover less Health. This was because we wanted to further differentiate the limits of Health and Shield, they are different stats and therefor should have different pros and cons to think about.
There were 2 other stats that had their own infinite problem, Hidden and Energy Burn.
Hidden Fatigue
The problem with Hidden was similar to Health and Shield, characters became immortal if they could generate enough of it. The solution could have also been similar, make it lose effectiveness as the combat goes on. The less effectiveness solution was ignoring a key factor though, Health and Shield are absorption mechanics, but Hidden is an avoidance mechanic.
Absorption mechanics should be reliable, but avoidance mechanics should be riskier because when they are successful you avoid instead of absorb or mitigate. This is why Maximum Damage Reduction is 90% but Maximum Dodge Chance is only 60%.
So, our solution was adding "Hidden Fatigue", this is how it works:
Hidden Fatigue starts at 0% and can be raised to 100%.
Characters that gain seconds of Hidden, also gain that much percent of Hidden Fatigue.
Hidden gains have a chance to fail equal to Hidden Fatigue.
This means that stats like Hidden On Wounded will never fail if the character hasn't been Hidden, but a Rebel with Ambush could fail any attempt of gaining Hidden after the first time, increasing with every success.
We also buffed the Hidden On Wounded bonuses by 50% and the Hidden gain of the Rebel skill Ambush by 25% to make each instance of Hidden gained more impactful.
Tolerance and Resolve
In our early demo Omen, we had a "Chance To Stun On Attack" stat. We like stuns as a defensive layer and we wanted to bring them back for Underboard, but the stat had no counter or way of mitigating its effectiveness, allowing stun locks with enough investment. So, we turned it into Poise Damage, with a Maximum Poise that increased on subsequent Poise Breaks to prevent stun locks.
Energy Burn has the same problem than Chance To Stun On Attack, so it isn't fun when the enemy has it in high amounts. It is also too strong when your characters have it in high amounts because then the enemies never use their skills, turning bosses into glorified Health bags for example.
Both Energy Burn and Poise Damage are negation mechanics, so a similar solution could have worked, but we want different stats to have different pros and cons.
We decided to add "Tolerance" and "Resolve", they work in the following way:
Maximum Tolerance is equal to Skill Energy Cost.
Characters that have their energy burned also lose that much Tolerance.
Losing all Tolerance applies Resolve.
Resolve is a buff that grants "Immune to Energy Burn" and it's lost on Skill Use.
Tolerance resets after losing Resolve or a Skill Use.
Characters only lose Tolerance based on how much effective energy they lost, and reducing their Skill Energy Cost will reduce their Tolerance, making them gain Resolve quicker. This means that Energy Burn causes enemies to take longer to use their skills, but they will cast their skills if they survive for long enough.
We also buffed sources of Energy Burn in traits and items by 20% to make low investment in Energy Burn more impactful.
Hello All! Update 1.11 is now live. It is full of various quality of life things that I have been meaning to do. I am releasing the game for free on IOS and Google Play and took the opportunity to fix some things. You can find the full list below. There will also be an upcoming price change for the game to make it cheaper just in an effort to get more people to check it out, I hope you enjoy!
- General Quality of Life Improvements - Sword nerf (slightly longer cooldown) - Lower price on multiple tier one upgrades to better reflect usefulness - Daily reward system - Retry button after you lose that restores health, gives gold, and skips the wave. - Saving bug fixes - Heart display fix - Better sound management to prevent clipping - In App Shop (only on IOS and Google Play)
Thanks for playing the game! please contact me with any more bugs!
** *Added Joystick Support *Added an indicator of where enemies will appear at the end of each WAVE
**
VISUAL MODIFICATIONS
** *It is possible to update the life bars and sound effects of any screen in the game (Exception: statistics screen) *Added a new screen showing developer acknowledgments *New button leading to the developer's social networks *Created a separate Tutorial button from the New Game button *Visual change in the final statistics screen *Complete visual change of the Settings Menu *Visual feedback indicating that the user has attribute points to be used
You can now disable object snapping in the build menu
Improved first person ADS camera position
Improved detection of adding and removing an item for how it determines if the container should be reset or not
Increased slightly chance for light rain
Fixed some weird sized weapon attachments
Fixed container loot reset timer being reset to the default value every time you loaded a save (This could cause object to look looted for abnormal amounts of time if you had restarted your game before the timer reset)
Space Station 14 Playtest - Trans Rights Nuke Disk
This week, anomalies have gained a fourth behavior. They may now transform and receive either positive or negative effects. The severity of the behavior will also affect point output. RCDs now feature many more choices and a massively improved UI for selecting options. And you can now favorite the positions of items in your inventory.
