Dev Log #70: Method and Madness

Hi guys,

We're rolling out a new content update. The main features of this update are new psi abilities for the three psionic schools of the base game, new items, and an alternative entrance into the Institute of Tchort, which becomes available at the appropriate time.

We also added an interesting new dungeon that can be accessed from somewhere in the Upper Underrail, so you might want to revisit those areas again.

I won't spoil the psi abilities; you'll have to find them out yourself. We haven't added any new temporal manipulation psi abilities, but we're likely to do that in a later update. The problem with TM is that it's designed to be limited in its offensive capabilities, in a sense that it's meant to deal its damage through a single delayed effect. And on the other hand, it's already overloaded with utility. This makes it quite hard to come up with something that would fit well into the school without making it even more unreasonably useful. We have some ideas, but they will need more developing.

Anyway, here is the full list of changes, except the secret ones, of course:

General

• A completely new way to gain access to the Institute of Tchort
  
• Reward items for joining Preservation or Investigation in the Institute of Tchort
  
• New dungeons and random fragments
  
• Added another way to reach the caves beneath the Mushroom Forest; also dropped some goodies inside the forest
  
• Certain NPCs can now consume food and drink items outside combat
  

Items

• Tchortist Rassophore Armor resistance bonus vs bullets/shells changed to 100% (up from 75%).
  
• Tchortist Rassophore Armor will now also reduce chance for wearer to be crit by psi by 3%.
  
• Tchortist Rassophore Armor is no longer marked as unique (purple)
  
• You can now add spikes or serrated blades to sledgehammer instead of electroshock module
  
• Added a set of new luxury items to the world; some of these are unique
  
• Blast Suit: agility penalty reduced from -6 to -3, dexterity penalty is completely removed, but there is now a perception penalty of -2 instead. Also, the armor's weight is reduced from 40 to 25
  
• Phase Gun: reduced AP from 40 to 35 and increased energy shield dissipation from 100 to 300; it's also been moved from DC to the Lost Vault
  
• Mind Cracker: lowered AP cost from 25 to 22, increased psi burn from 25 to 50 points, chance to apply psi inhibition from 25% to 30%, and replaced the resolve penalty with massive penalties to psi skills, regeneration and max points; also moved it to a mysterious new area
  
• Quake: lowered AP cost from 25 to 23
  
• Jawbone: Reduced minimal strength from 6 to 5 and increased damage from 25/60 to 30/70; meeting the 7 strength requirement reduces AP cost per shot by 3 (from 25 to 22) and boosts initimidation by 15
  
• Industrial Powered Exoskeleton: activating it now gives 3 extra strength instead of 2, 40 MP instead of 25 (to offset the high armor penalty), and the agility penalty is removed. The drill attack AP is also reduced from 40 to 35
  
• Makeshift Chrono-repeater: Skill malus no longer affects Temporal Manipulation itself
  
• Changed the duration of Hypercerebrix to 8 turns (up from 5)
  
• Added spear component that increases thrown damage and range
  

UI

• You can no longer see the silhouette of unobtained oddities in their window
  
• You can no longer craft in turn-based mode
  
• When invoking an ability that targets a tile, it will now always ignore characters and such; it used to work like that, but I broke it at some point
  

Tweaks

• Siphoner attacks now bypasses 30% of mechanical threshold instead of being threated as a "knife" attack
  
• Siphoner initial siphining hook attack deals 50% more damage, but siphonig is not performed if the target resists all mechanical damage (instead of it only being canceled if the attack misses)
  
• Killing the Mushroom Forest boss will now also kill the spore turrets above it
  
• Halved the number of spore stacks necessary to dream...
  
• Echoing Soliloquy now gets a buff from persuasion (applied at the moment you obtain the feat and remains constant afterwards)
  
• Improved the layout of the Gubbins' gang area in Upper Underrail
  
• Added a new way to help the rejects (if Nevil survived), and did some general improvements and tweaks
  
• Overhauled elevator access areas and increased the loot quantity and quality inside the residential office building. In addition, increased the hacking requirement to get inside the building.
  
• Added new loot to the lower passages early game fragment dungeon.
  
• Toned down item quality sold by Booth.
  
• Added another shortcut to Nexus of Technology for those who have visited Crimson Meadow beforehand
  
• Added a unique luxury item to Matriuss Ludenloff.
  

Bugs

• Throwing knives will no longer play sound effects when hitting pseudo-spatial projections
  
• Fixed the bug that would cause the game to no longer receive keyboard inputs after clicking on some areas of Oddities window
  
• Commando specialization will now always properly award extra AP and is no longer limited by the normal maximum for the turn
  
• Fixed certain factions resetting from hostile to neutral after the player comes in contact with a very, very bad gas and then reloads the game
  
• Fixed Gorsky receiving an endless supply of assault rifles
  
• Fixed certain npcs briefly turning invisible when playing custom idle animations
  
• Fixed a rare crash when going to the island where the game can be finished in a special way
  
• Various minor dialog and zone fixes
  

We are due for just one more content update before we shift fully to the Infusion project. From that point onwards there will be minor addition to the game, at least until the Infusion is released. But more on that in the next dev log.

Let us know how you like the additions and changes.

Cheers.