Although we just released our first major content patch, we decided we couldn't enjoy the holidays fully if we didn't leave our players with a much requested QoL improvement - a button to mass move items to and from your inventories/containers. Thank you again to you all who decided to join our community and contribute with your suggestions and feedback! See you in 2025!
NEW FEATURES/UPDATES
New GIVE ALL button: You can now mass move items from backpack to other containers (the button also responds to filters). GIVE ALL should appear to all player owned containers (backpack, car, stash)
Improved DONATE: Using the GIVE ALL button in a resource donation will now automatically select and move the correct items to the trade window.
Modified RECYCLING: The Recycling manager will no longer accept assembled weapons, after several of his workers tried to dismantle the firing mechanism with a hammer, nearly killing each other. In order to use weapons for donation you will need to dismantle them first (actually it's just a safety to avoid an accidental automatic donate of all your weapons using the new GIVE ALL button).
Modified SHELTER OVERVIEW: We renamed the GAS column in Notebook/Shelter to Power/Gas (and changed its icon) so the relation between gasoline for the generator and power used by the buildings is crystal clear.
FIXED BUGS/HANGS
Fixed a bug in Courthouse where the Bounty Bros encounter would activate when you already killed the cultists when talking to Judge Jenny
Fixed a rare Zombie Arena bug that would make the game hang (during the aspirant trials)
MORE TO COME!
Holidays Update & Patch Notes - December 21st
We’ve spent most of the last week monitoring your feedback and working on fixes for reported issues. Initially, we planned to separate urgent fixes (for the stable build) from content updates (in a beta build). However, in the spirit of the holidays, we decided to let everyone enjoy the bonus sandbox map directly! We still plan to separate the two update streams in the future, but for now enjoy them at will, together with a much smoother experience!
SANDBOX
New Maps: Added two new sandbox maps—Pious Graveyard and Grave Robber's Hideout. These are minimally tied to the RPG elements and won’t affect the overall campaign. The maps are accessible as soon as you finish the prologue story, but they're really meant for those who already finished the current EA content and thus have some experience with the game mechanics. Do not expect the enemies to cut you any slack if you're a newbie.
Warning (again): Both maps are technically Act 2 areas, so expect tough enemies armed with 9mm and 5.56 weapons. If played strategically, you can gather valuable resources, but be prepared for a challenge. The balance may be heavily skewed against you—proceed with caution!
Pious Graveyard: Features a mausoleum that grave robbers have repeatedly tried—and failed—to reach. Discover why they are so determined to succeed, despite heavy sacrifices.
The Pio Clan: Currently in disarray and not very communicative. They’ll explain why they’re hiding in the church and will trade resources with you. The church also serves as a safe spot to rest and recover.
Brother Nino: The trader has a special restock every game day for your convenience. He'll happily accept any loot you've persuaded those pesky grave robbers to part with.
INVENTORY
Sort Button: Located at the top-right of every backpack, box, or stash. It now stacks similar items in addition to grouping them as requested by many players.
LOGIC/FLOW
Fixed a bug where delivering the quest to Judge Jenny didn’t trigger successful completion of Secure Supermarket.
Fixed a bug where John Saint didn’t offer a blueprint reward after bringing him the ring from Secure Courthouse.
Completing the boss quest for John Saint now triggers a vote in the Notebook/Relations for an alliance with the cult.
Completing the boss quest for Judge Jenny now triggers a vote in the Notebook/Relations for an alliance with the army.
Fixed a bug where Snitch (Gas Station boss) retained the objective marker above his head after completing the quest (cosmetic fix requires a new save to take effect).
After fully exploring all Act 1 maps, a special radio cutscene will now play when you return home, signaling that the horde is near.
CODE
Improved save file backwards compatibility.
Fixed a bug where the game exited with a fatal error when an NPC under the mouse cursor despawned (e.g., during the Hungry Cultist quest at the Gas Station).
STORY/TEXT
First batch of text revisions by our new guest editor, Scott Hamm, covering:
Tutorial scenario
Pop-up help
Hero’s dream dialogue
Wake-up dialogue
First meeting dialogue
Sheriff's Office dialogue
Renamed Good Moonshiners in Little Italy to Moonshine Workers to avoid confusion with Drunk Moonshiners.
Renamed Bandit Slaves in Adams Villa to Cassey Bandits to clarify their hostile intentions.
ANIMATIONS
Introduced the first batch of faster animations (more improvements are planned):
Melee attacks and dodges
Shooting from cover
Characters now return to their starting positions after initiating an attack in stealth (crouch).
ENJOY THE BONUS CHALLENGE, YOU'VE EARNED IT!
ALSO, COMING SOON:
Additional Act 1 maps
Quest streamlining
More proofreading
Voiceover quality improvements
More keybind options
Move All button mirrored for quicker item transfers
Smart Donate Resources functionality for shelters
Tabs for quickly selecting managers during trade
Dev Blog: Early Access - Week One
The current public build of the game is showing strong signs of stability. While there are still a few patches to be applied, the problems seem proportionally limited. This allows us to keep the default branch as a stable release and end the code freeze to resume development. Meanwhile, everyone who bought the game is welcome to join the BETA BRANCH starting next week—provided you understand that it is a laboratory where things are experimental (and will sometimes go wrong).
So, what can you expect to see (and play) in the beta branch?
SANDBOX MAPS
Many of you have expressed a desire for more maps and the option to play them in a sandbox format. While Urban Strife was never advertised as a sandbox game, we’ve heard your feedback and thought of a solution that should make everyone happy!
We have many maps waiting in the campaign queue to be integrated into the game. A lot of effort has gone into their level design. Why not let everyone enjoy them while the main story is still being developed?
So… in the beta build, you will see all the maps that will eventually make up the game, complete with their real locations and details. The maps will be accessible for sandbox play as soon as they have a basic setup that supports combat (a local faction, basic traders for restocking, loot, etc.). Cutscenes and intrigue will be added later, as the maps exit “sandbox mode” and are fully integrated into the campaign.
Next week, you can expect a trip to a very gruesome graveyard, where Father Pio Di’Angello’s camp is under attack by a gang of ruthless slavers.
FASTER ANIMATIONS
Another common issue that many of you highlighted was the speed of the animations. While we initially planned to address this optimization later in Early Access, the feedback was clear, so we decided to start working on it now.
The animations will be updated in batches, with improvements released regularly. The first batch you’ll see focuses on faster melee attack animations.
This beta branch approach allows us to experiment and iterate, with your feedback as a critical part of the process. Thank you all for supporting the game in EA and hope you all have a lot of fun!
Patch Notes - December 11th, 2024
An issue where the hero's customization was randomly reset during the save/load process was fixed (again)
An issue that prevented players from redefining controls in Game Options has been fixed
(then another issue that prevented them using ESC key was found so we went down the rabbit hole and found out an entire history of how UE doesn't like people changing default controls; long story short, we found a way to fix it, you should be able to redefine controls now at will)
Patch Notes - December 10th, 2024 (rolled back)
An issue where the hero's customization was randomly reset during the save/load process was fixed
An issue that prevented players from redefining controls in Game Options has been fixed
The issue with the keys was INI related and required a more extensive fix. We'll rollback this patch and prepare a fresh one tomorrow.
An amazing journey ends… and another starts!
An incredible journey of over eight years reaches its harbor today. What began as a project that, on paper, seemed impossible has now become reality: Urban Strife.
This game was brought to life by a dedicated team of three devs, alongside a roster of amazing friends who generously contributed their expertise. It’s still a rough gem, waiting to be cut and polished—that’s why we chose the Early Access path. We believe this is the best way to finish our journey: together with you, the players. Those players who – same as us three - wanted more and always got less from their games, because “it is what our focus groups say is trending”.
Making this moment even more special, we’re launching Urban Strife with the support of MicroProse—a name that has been synonymous with gaming excellence for generations.
In the past two weeks, we shared an Early Access preview build with over 100 content creators. Thanks to their efforts, we identified and fixed a dozen critical bugs, resolved hundreds of minor issues, and introduced vital balancing and quality-of-life updates. Their generosity in donating their time and expertise has been invaluable, and we are deeply grateful to them.
To those who’ve said, “I like the game, but I’d rather play it when it’s out of Early Access,” we hear you, too. We invite you to stay with us on this journey—share your ideas and critiques, and help shape Urban Strife into the game you want it to be when it officially launches as version 1.0.
So… welcome to Urban Strife. If you’re curious about what lies ahead, we’ve prepared a detailed Early Access roadmap for you. If you’re ready to dive in, check out the introductory playthrough running on a loop on our store page, or explore the quick tips we’ve provided under the “Quick Reference” section of our Steam page.
Good luck out there, and thank you for your incredible support!
Autumn 2024 Dev Blog: It's been a long time coming...
Yes, it's been a long journey. But we came far and it was worth it. For those wandering how long this game was in development and how it looked back then, we've prepared a few before/after shots, a short comparison between our first ever public demo (2017) and the current game.
We are aware some of you expected a full release, considering how long it took us to reach this point. But we felt we had to own up to the “TBS Survival RPG” tag we have chosen to define our game. So when we had the turn-based strategy part dialed in, we looked at our RPG and felt it needed more. We added dialogue skill checks, character development and perks and we rewrote the story to give the player as much agency as possible. As soon as we had a good Strategy RPG, the survival part was crying for attention.
We came up with a modular base map, a barter economy with factional preferences and even a complex health system that goes from self-healing scratches to crippling injuries! Wounds can vary in their impact to your crew, with some requiring hospitalization or booster drugs that can even leave you with a bad hangover! Even more additions have been brought to the game, from backpacks, industrial crafting and much much more.
Each layer, taken separately, would’ve made a good game, but our ambition was to weave a unique combo of all three. And we believe we’re onto something really, really good. But it’s up to you, the players, to judge this. Yes, it’s Early Access. Yes, there are still nuts and bolts to tighten. But those wanting more from their games, those feeling the good old times of game development are gone - this game is for you. We dare you to join us for the final part of this exciting journey and put the finishing touches on a game we hope will become a classic.
Here’s a short glimpse of what is coming in Urban Strife Early Access:
An American town in the deep south that is full of intrigue and territorial in-fighting amongst survivor groups, with the looming danger of an incoming zombie wave that destroyed Atlanta
AI controlled enemies that dynamically adjust their tactics and weapon of choice based on your visible movements and group positioning.
AI enemies capable of advanced and varied roles: snipers, flankers, grenadiers, medics, even zombie controlling herders.
Special zombie AI that moves the horde in one turn, while preserving the individual sensors for each zombie (so you can split large groups if needed)
Firearms ballistics simulation, from weapon characteristics to bullet specifics determining the chance to hit.
Real material cover with five levels of penetration and three levels of body armor to go with it.
A unique adaptation of classic tile-based, isometric and action points systems in Unreal Engine, combining the very best of both worlds.
Full 24hr time passage with beautiful and immersive night/day progression that alters the schedules of the NPCs populating the world.
Your own zombie survival vehicles, starting with a beat-up sheriff cruiser or, depending on your choice of allies and friends, an iconic RV, a zombie-proof 4x4 truck or a military Humvee.
A base that you need to keep supplied with food, health and morale items in order to get a survival industry going and prepare for the incoming zombie siege.
A barter system, so you can trade your surplus supplies with other survivor groups and procure whatever you need.
Workshop and backpack crafting recipes, so you can fabricate items from scrap and looted resources, be those weapons, armor, medicine or even artisanal grenades
Secret FBI files with hidden backstories of the faction warlords that will unlock different endings to the game.
Slightly deranged recruits that you need to try and keep in harmony in your group by balancing their beliefs and friendship/adversities.
And finally, a personal story you carve through the hordes of undead, in order to discover your own special place in the world of Urban.
For those willing to get involved with the game development even more, we’ll have a beta branch ready on Steam with the features that are in the pipeline. If you’re curious what’s coming next, this branch enables you to find out for yourself.
Here's another sneak peek of our upcoming title, Urban Strife. This time we're showing a short night fight, to fit the theme of Steam Scream Fest we are attending. Please take this combat with a grain of salt - we've intentionally used a lot of noise makers to draw out the zombies. Do not try this at home, we are professional zombie killers (we also tend to die a lot in our playtesting but we edited out that part).
On a serious note, we've completely overhauled our hover information system and we've added a couple of the new voice-overs. You can also see the new plate carrier body armor at work in game.
You can check out the pre-recorded dev test on our Steam Store page or on our YouTube channel:
Urban Strife Sneak Peek
During the Turn Based Festival we will stream a dev playthrough of our latest game build.
The location shown is a gas station controlled by a group of bikers, about to go to war against a gang of zombie worshiping cultists. This is only a small part of the scenario, basically the initial contact with faction, where seek to gain their favour and gain access to their traders, before going to war against their adversary.
We stopped short of spoiling too much of the content, but hopefully you can get an idea of what is coming.
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!
