I've been busy designing and implementing most of the mechanics discussed in the last update. There has also been some other minor and major developments. Development has been a bit slow due to past month being so busy personally. Most of the current developments are also heavily interlinked with other systems which makes testing and presenting them hard while incomplete.

Here's a sneak peek on some of the updates.


You can now trade more freely with the Seekers you encounter. You can select what resources you want to trade and get options what you can receive. In addition to resources and most common consumable items, you can also receive information from the Trader. The Traders will also have preferences they want to trade for, satisfy these desires and you will gain favour with the Faction they represent. The costs and trade options are very dynamic, being affected by your reputation with the trader's faction and some other ingame events, more on them in the next update.


Armours have received a major change. Character can now only equip one Helmet and one Vest at a time. Sets are also divided into three broader classes instead of named pairs. Each class also share distinct bonuses.

Another major change is upgrade slots for all the armours. Armours can now be upgraded with Equipment items. Some Gadgets with simple passive bonuses are now known as Equipments, such as Gas Mask and Luck Stone. You can use Altars to slot an Equipment in to an Armour. The process gives a weaker version of the Equipments bonus for the Armour. There is also one major change that affects Equipments in general, but more on that in the next update...

These changes hopefully make armours more interesting and desireable to use.


As you can now more reliably secure Nectars from trading Seekers you encounter Spirit has also received some changes. A more major change is that melee attacks now drain Spirit. Each weapon has its own value ranging from 1-5. You can still attack even if spirit is 0. This makes spirit even more dynamic resource and with the trade changes gives melee builds something to do with the excess Alloys, as they can be traded for Nectars.

As of consequences of low Spirit, there is now a lot less quesswork involved when resting. The calculation for the party's Conflict is now done spereately from the Resting. You wil now be prompted with options to use Charisma rest or resolve the Conflcit when it occurs, no more confusing rng during sleep.


There are many other improvements not listed here. All of the mentioned above require heavy testing in the coming weeks, so I will be very laser focused on development. Expect more news in few weeks.

Dead Underworld will participate in the upcoming Turn Based Thursday Fest[turnbasedfest.com] with an updated demo with changes mentioned above!


Experiences and hardships in the past year have been exhausting and the drain has crept up so development has been bit too sporadic to my liking in the past couple months. Steady progress is being made and the plans are clear.


Unitil next time!
-Iiro

Hi, here's a quick update on the development process!

Feedback from the demo and playtesters has been positive. I'm currently finalizing the design for some minor gameplay revisions and improvements, as well as planning the steps to implement the planned endgame content. Implementation will take some time, so thanks for your patience! Expect more detailed news and updates roughly a month from now.

Some features that will change from what you've already seen:

• Rework of all armors and how they interact with each other.
  
• New expanded interaction system for NPC Seekers.
  
• Rework of Gift items (These are permanent late-game Seeker upgrade items, which were hard to obtain in the demo).
  
• Starting Seeker and Guide menu rework.
  
• Improved tutorial and gameplay teaching features.
  
• Biome linked map features, more faction interactions...

Development has been a bit slow over the past couple of weeks due to the harsh flu season here, but work continues. There's still a lot to do, and too many moving parts to give a definite launch date, but expect the release to happen in summer 2025!