Colony Ship - Major Update

[HiddenX]

Pladio spotted a major update for Colony Ship - A Post-Earth Role Playing Game:

New location - the Heart (of the Ship)

You can now travel to the mutant town known as the Heart in search of a reactor-grade fuel cell and recruit a mutant companion (one of two mutually exclusive party members) to your cause . Your adventure continues and we take one step closer to the release.

Living and working in the radioactive umbra of the damaged reactor greatly increased mortality rates for the outcasts, but many generations of shortened lives, afflicted with mutations both minor and severe, have resulted in a people fully adapted to the toxic environment.

In the mutants' earliest days labor was by necessity divided, the men tending to the engines while the women tended to the men as they inevitably sickened and died. Much was asked of these mothers and sisters, and from the beginning they adopted the faith to augment their strength.

Many mutants credit their people's survival on this belief, that another world awaits them after death, a counter to the hellish reality of the reactor. Due to the inescapable radiation poisoning of engine work, only the females lived long enough to take on the role of elder, and to run those aspects of life beyond the perimeter of the engines.

Thus did necessity evolve into tradition, and tradition into law. The females sustain the priesthood and all the sacred duties of religion, while the engine work and protection of the enclave have fallen to the males. Those who aren't happy with such an arrangement leave the enclave, becoming true outcasts, welcome in neither the Habitat nor the Heart.

What's left to do:

• Hydroponics, Yellow and Red Zones (simulated Proxima environments).
• Mission Control lower levels (that you couldn't explore before). There are two ways in, one's the eye you stole from the Church's vault, the other involves baiting a giant worm known as Ol' Bub as in Beelzebub.
• The Ship's Bridge
• The Endgame

Hydroponics and Mission Control are easy to do as we'll be expanding the existing locations. The Bridge is small by definition, so the hard part is behind us now. Once these locations are done, the level design (a major chunk of work) will be finally done as well and we'll be able to fully focus on the endgame events.

Here's to light at the end of the 6-year long tunnel.

More information.

 

[LaHolt]

It's shaping up to be a sweet fallout-looking title. Will have to grab it soon.

 

[rjshae]

So perhaps a couple more years until release? I'll probably feel more excited when they're close to a wrap.

 

[bjon045]

I want to love it but there are just too many odd design decisions in this game - sadly most of them are the same issues that were in AoD (and even Dungeon Rats).

The game is balanced poorly and if you are lucky enough to build your character well the game is decent/good. The problem is the game does very little to help the player choose wisely. Some combat skills are absolutely WORTHLESS and the game doesn't tell you which. If you choose the wrong one then the game becomes also unplayable. AoD had the same problem, except if you wanted to do a non-combat playthrough is is fairly straightforward. The problem was certain defensive skills were worthless and even the offensive skills were very inconsistent. Guess what? Same thing in Colony Ship. Dungeon Rats was the worst offender - the game becomes impossible at the mid-point of the game if you chose poorly.

I'm actually okay with poor balance as long as the game gives you a clear direction i.e. "This skill is recommended for this build." or if it has a very robust manual/in-game help. The problem with Colony Ship is if you want to fight you have to look at a forum to find a viable build. If you are an experienced AoD player you have a better than average chance of being able to do it but for a new player there is very little chance.

The designer is clear that the player is not supposed to be a god and that is fine - but at least throw a new player a bone if they are selecting a skill (or combination of) that makes the game near impossible to complete.

 

[Stingray]

So perhaps a couple more years until release? I'll probably feel more excited when they're close to a wrap.

It’s coming out this year, current target is July.

 

[VDweller]

Some combat skills are absolutely WORTHLESS and the game doesn't tell you which. If you choose the wrong one then the game becomes also unplayable.

Which combat skills are worthless in your opinion?

The problem was certain defensive skills were worthless...

AoD has two defensive skills: dodge and block. Half the player-submitted builds (builds with high body count the players were proud of) are dodgers, the other 'blockers', which suggests they work equally well. I can post some links if you're curious.

 

[Pladio]

Looking forward to this one
I played through the first chapter a while back and really enjoyed it, but been holding off for now to not get too much content before the game is finished.

 

[wolfgrimdark]

I'm trying to resist buying the EA right now as I already have two other EA games and don't want more.

 

[bjon045]

Which combat skills are worthless in your opinion?


AoD has two defensive skills: dodge and block. Half the player-submitted builds (builds with high body count the players were proud of) are dodgers, the other 'blockers', which suggests they work equally well. I can post some links if you're curious.

For Colony Ship I have played with Blunt and Shotgun.

For AoD I played with sword and block with some speech skills as well - I think it was a Praetor. if my memory serves. After about 3-4 hours of getting destroyed I started again as a non-combat build and quite enjoyed my playthrough.

For Dungeons Rats, I went spear and block (if memory serves me right again) and it was challenging but doable. Then I got to these alien/robot things (my memory may be faulty here) that I believe were near the middle or 2/3rds of the way through the game and promptly got destroyed after multiple attempts. After getting some advice in the forums my particular build was determined to not be good enough. I had also built the couple of followers I had in a non-optimal way as well.

Now, I am not an inexperienced gamer - in fact I normally play on the hardest difficulty in most games I play. Of the 100'ish games I've played in the last 3-4 years my finish rate is near 100%. I have completed Kingmaker on the Challenging difficulty. In the last 2 weeks I finished a full play through of the FR gold boxes games on Champion difficulty (where it allows you set it) with non modified characters and defeated both Dave's challenge in PoD (without using Blink) and the Mulmaster Beholder corps (without using the Dust of Dissappearance) with no multiclass/dual class characters. I've never had to restart ANY game in recent memory except for AoD. I finished a full combat playthrough of ATOM with a low dex pistol build - purely because the game allows you to respec once! ATOM 1 is in many ways similar to AoD/DR and Colony ship - it provides no advice as to what an acceptable build may be like and the game becomes an exercise in tedium if you don't do it right. But there is one big difference - ATOM gives you one opportunity to respec your character as well as more opportunity to "fix" your character through the character progression system. AoD and Dungeon rats don't do this. DR's is the only game I have not finished in the last 5 years. AoD is the only game that I have had to start again. I have actually seen a lot of successful combat builds in AoD - I know it can be done. I know it is either how I am doing the combat or my build is broken. For people who don't want to check guides/forums/wikis it is not a good experience. Now, I'm actually okay if that is the design paradigm as there is a certain niche in the cRPG market who likes that. I love the concept of AoD but for me it just didn't deliver experience that I hoped it would (at least in my first attempt it didn't).

What would I do different? Either have an automated check that applies during character build that gives a warning for certain stat/skill allocations for new players (allow veterans to turn it off) or provide some "highly recommended" builds for new players i.e. 1 combat and 1 speech based. And by new players I mean ones that don't want to replay multiple times or read wikis etc.

Now Colony ship - I have not played enough to know if the same is true. I've only played it for roughly 5 hours. During the time that I have played though I have gotten the exact same vibe. When I do actually play it fully I am almost certainly going to go for a full non-combat build as much as possible.

My feedback may sound negative but I guess on the other hand I do actually own all 3 games and I even own multiple copies of AoD - I have AoD and DR on steam and AoD and Colony Ship on GoG.

 

[JFarrell71]

Did you answer the question? Are you saying that blunt and shotgun (and sword and block) are all caps worthless in Colony Ship and Age of Decadence, respectively?

 

[Stingray]

I had pretty much the opposite experience here. Only played through AoD once, but I played a pure combat character. I spent probably 15-20 minutes ahead of time reading up on the stats/skills/combat system (as I'd do for any game in a brand-new setting) and was able to create a character that worked well, never had to restart. With Dungeon Rats, pretty sure I played on the medium difficulty - not sure if you maybe played on the highest one. But I didn't have any big problems finishing the game on the first try without a restart. Some fights towards the end required some reloads but nothing was insurmountable.

 

[bjon045]

Did you answer the question? Are you saying that blunt and shotgun (and sword and block) are all caps worthless in Colony Ship and Age of Decadence, respectively?

Yeah - but I will caveat that with the fact that I only played for a limited amount of time (on an earlier version) and that was enough for me to give up in frustration - and shelve it till the full release in the hope that it gets better. AoD I gave up and rerolled after about 4 hours after stuggling through 4-5 fights and then hitting a brick wall (in terms of combat). As soon as I rerolled my character I had a much smoother time. When I say worthless I am meaning I was hitting for a fraction of the damage enemies hit me for while they were doing far more back to me in a way that now amount of tactical positioning could account for. To be clear - this was not me standing in place and letting enemies attack me, this was me doing some prep work and positioning myself out of LOS (i.e. behind an object/corner) of a range weapon and then they would just walk up to me and out damage me at point blank range.

I had pretty much the opposite experience here. Only played through AoD once, but I played a pure combat character. I spent probably 15-20 minutes ahead of time reading up on the stats/skills/combat system (as I'd do for any game in a brand-new setting) and was able to create a character that worked well, never had to restart. With Dungeon Rats, pretty sure I played on the medium difficulty - not sure if you maybe played on the highest one. But I didn't have any big problems finishing the game on the first try without a restart. Some fights towards the end required some reloads but nothing was insurmountable.

I know it can be done and you likely chose a better set of starting stats which syngerised better with your skills. The difference is I didn't spend any time reading in advance. I never do that for any game I play unless it has a manual. I consider reading anything before playing a form of cheating. I wish I had a screen cap of the character I built first time around but I normally do that when I finish the game not at the start! I most likely had a bad combination of Action points, strength, con, perception and weapon skill. I remember my primary spec was sword and block but I did put some points into Hammer as well because I wanted an alternative damage type. I tried to spread general points across both combat and civil skills.

I don't read up on what stats I need to achieve certain events etc. I always reserve that for a second playthrough - which is rare for me as I only do that with the very best of games.

This was my character who finished the game - non-combat clearly



edit: I'm going to try again All this talking about it has motivated me to try again since it isn't a super long game.

 

[largh]

They'd better finish this game soon or the ship will arrive Proxima Centauri and they'll have to start all over with "Colony Planet"

 

[Pladio]

For Colony Ship I have played with Blunt and Shotgun.

For AoD I played with sword and block with some speech skills as well - I think it was a Praetor. if my memory serves. After about 3-4 hours of getting destroyed I started again as a non-combat build and quite enjoyed my playthrough.

For Dungeons Rats, I went spear and block (if memory serves me right again) and it was challenging but doable. Then I got to these alien/robot things (my memory may be faulty here) that I believe were near the middle or 2/3rds of the way through the game and promptly got destroyed after multiple attempts. After getting some advice in the forums my particular build was determined to not be good enough. I had also built the couple of followers I had in a non-optimal way as well.

Now, I am not an inexperienced gamer - in fact I normally play on the hardest difficulty in most games I play. Of the 100'ish games I've played in the last 3-4 years my finish rate is near 100%. I have completed Kingmaker on the Challenging difficulty. In the last 2 weeks I finished a full play through of the FR gold boxes games on Champion difficulty (where it allows you set it) with non modified characters and defeated both Dave's challenge in PoD (without using Blink) and the Mulmaster Beholder corps (without using the Dust of Dissappearance) with no multiclass/dual class characters. I've never had to restart ANY game in recent memory except for AoD. I finished a full combat playthrough of ATOM with a low dex pistol build - purely because the game allows you to respec once! ATOM 1 is in many ways similar to AoD/DR and Colony ship - it provides no advice as to what an acceptable build may be like and the game becomes an exercise in tedium if you don't do it right. But there is one big difference - ATOM gives you one opportunity to respec your character as well as more opportunity to "fix" your character through the character progression system. AoD and Dungeon rats don't do this. DR's is the only game I have not finished in the last 5 years. AoD is the only game that I have had to start again. I have actually seen a lot of successful combat builds in AoD - I know it can be done. I know it is either how I am doing the combat or my build is broken. For people who don't want to check guides/forums/wikis it is not a good experience. Now, I'm actually okay if that is the design paradigm as there is a certain niche in the cRPG market who likes that. I love the concept of AoD but for me it just didn't deliver experience that I hoped it would (at least in my first attempt it didn't).

What would I do different? Either have an automated check that applies during character build that gives a warning for certain stat/skill allocations for new players (allow veterans to turn it off) or provide some "highly recommended" builds for new players i.e. 1 combat and 1 speech based. And by new players I mean ones that don't want to replay multiple times or read wikis etc.

Now Colony ship - I have not played enough to know if the same is true. I've only played it for roughly 5 hours. During the time that I have played though I have gotten the exact same vibe. When I do actually play it fully I am almost certainly going to go for a full non-combat build as much as possible.

My feedback may sound negative but I guess on the other hand I do actually own all 3 games and I even own multiple copies of AoD - I have AoD and DR on steam and AoD and Colony Ship on GoG.

I agree that combat builds are much more difficult on these games than standard games. But to be honest, if you were to play Pathfinder games on Insane difficulty you'd need to understand the ruleset pretty well. In this instance, AoD doesn't have difficulty settings, the main difficulty setting is picking whether you want to go:
1. Talker (Easy mode)
2. Fighter (Hard)
3. Hybrid (Insane)

So in Colony Ship they do provide two difficulty settings now, but still, it has the same points. Since you advance skills by using them, using Shotgun AND Blunt is going to make your life difficult. Pick one and stick to it. By multi-classing essentially you must have made your life quite a pain.

For Dungeon Rats, did you try playing on Easy first or did you go to Hard expecting it to be easy ?

 

[Carnifex]

I still have rather high hopes for this one, may the expectations equal the delivery.

And Dungeon Rats is an excellent game, I seriously need to replay that one soonish.