What if I hate TBS? Is the game still good?

Did you play the original Fallout games? 1 & 2? If you did, and enjoyed them, then you'll almost certainly like UnderRail. I know you don't like Jagged Alliance, but I also know you *have* played that. Imagine Jagged Alliance with only one character to control, more detail over your skills, "magic" in the form of psychic abilities, more detailed character growth, set in a sort of post-apocalyptic underground like the excellent Metro series, with plenty of non-combat mechanics implemented such as stealth, persuasion, and a very detailed crafting system. That's UnderRail.

I tried #1. I got sick of the 'movement points' almost as soon as I got out of the base and I quit.

Well, movement and action points are sort of fundamental to a turn-based system. If that kind of thing will break a game for you, then you probably won't enjoy UnderRail, since while you *can* play a low-combat playthrough, it's very difficult and does limit your character progression, and you can't get around the movement/action points in combat. There's no real-time option. So probably UnderRail is not the game for you.

I thought you liked Starcraft and Warcraft? Aren't they TBS?

I've played many turn-based RPGs that lack movement points, mainly because they dispense with the whole notion of keeping track of position during battle.

Once you add positioning to the combat system, things become much more complex and slower; that's one reason I prefer non-tactical turn-based combat, like what you see in games like Wizardry, Bard's Tale 1-3, Might and Magic, and Dragon Quest.

No, RTS, which is my favorite genre.

And I want to point out that I'm not slamming TBS games. Given how popular they are I think the fault lies with me for not liking them.

Oh, yeah. That's right. My mistake.

RTS can be fun, but I prefer a bit slower pace. I like the squad-based RPG style of the Shadowrun games personally.

I think the last RTS that I played that was really good was Dune 2000.

me too! I even have had $20 set aside and have for a WHILE for when it comes

though I'll STILL wait for it to go through a couple patches after release before starting

I should have Divine Divinity finished by then?!

Probably just one. This isn't Larian we're talking about, you don't need to wait for seven hotfix patches to fix what they broke with their one intentional patch. :P

yep, the game is still good even if you hate TBS

just like a quality grass-fed steak is still good even if you're vegetarian

but here are some quick tidbits to try and "get" what it's about:

- the game is all about setting, location, atmosphere. The story is those things and the groups and things who literally carved out the world around them as needed to survive (as mentioned, a bit like fallout, where each location is almost dedicated to a different type of lifestyle or group that tells a story simply by the way it exists/that it exists) - if this sort of thing done well does it for you, this game could be for you

- the game is all about your character in terms of building it with skills and using your character to make its way through the world, doing what needs done. Do you like a large variety of potential ways to build a character with skills and abilities tied to those skills? If so, this game offers some of the best ever, imo. Every single skill interacts with the world (and in turn, the game mechanics) in a meaningful way, usually in multiple ways. The synergism and blending of the mechanics on all levels is the best I've ever seen in an RPG. There is nothing useless on meaningless leftover-ish, but you also can't JOAT in the slightest, so replay to discover all the things the game has to over is HUGE. The character stats have the best implementation I've seen. The feats and variety of usefulness across skills and builds is the best I've seen. If you like this sort of stuff, this game very well could be for you.

(sidenote: there is an entire skilltree dedicated to various crafting skills, you can utilize it or not - it is made to appeal to those that don't even like crafting, and for me is the most appealing crafting system I've ever seen in a game [though Camelot Unchained will likely surpass it once it is done/out], because again, the skills are meaningful and synergized with the gameplay and world to a high degree - AND, the best items in the game are things you craft, but you can't craft everything, and the variety of what you can craft is perfect and smart, so good and useful)

- this game is all about combat with the character you make ^ so it is highly varied, deep, tactical, and fucking fun as hell once you get it under your belt (a bit of a learning curve but not bad, it's just not an easy game all around and combat is no different - you have to be smart and actually think about things. the most aweseome thing about this is that it pulls off good tactical combat with a single character, no followers, no "I have a healer for this a ranged for this a tank for this", you must build your character in a way that makes sense for a single character and get the job done, and it is extremely satisfying and fun)

in order to achieve that, it is turn-based, yep, but it is the only thing in the game that is turn based, otherwise you're free to go around (I recommend stealth, highly, it has an awesome stealth mechanic! check out the wiki to learn about it) and use your skills to do a variety of things in the world and discover things and talk to people and explore

explore explore explore

if you don't like tactical turn-based combat, you might want to try the game anyway if the rest of that appeals to you anyway, give it some time to learn it a bit and see if you get a taste for it *shrug*

AND, finally

there is a unique XP system called the "oddity" system, that makes things a lot more interesting and less annoying in terms of combat and leveling, check it out
true, actually, one is probably enough, they are extremely thorough and great programmer (s)

Chroma Squad is another good turn based strategy RPG.

i need to play that.

I bought it a few months ago.

HYYYYYPED!!!!!!!!!! (I am)

http://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=3353.0

and then there was this:

http://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=3334.0

and from a few other things I've read in the forums, it sounds like they'll be going back through and expanding some of the skill implementations

so even when the expansion gets released, even though I'll fire it up and start playing a little (and finally finalize my 1st character, which I think I have figured out, finally), I'll still be waiting for at least 1 patch before doing much, because likely they'll even add some dialogue influences near the beginning that I'll want to start over for!

new devlog!

The Rig and stuff