Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Colony Ship RPG update #10 - Romeo

Cazzeris

Guest
Iron Tower Studio has posted yet another entertaining update this week. This must be their way of saying "Merry Christmas". :salute:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7355.0.html

Vince said:
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the CSG is a party-based game and the party dynamics will be one of the areas we’ll focus on. There will be 12 potential companions (max party size is 4) filling different roles: psychotic paranoia, racial superiority, religious intolerance (works best when mixed with homicidal tendencies), political idealism, and other delightful personality quirks. In other words, the party members won’t be loyal and obedient slaves but will have their own beliefs, agendas, and personality traits (or in some cases, programming).

To give you an idea, here is a quick overview of the top four gunmen who might be persuaded to join you (keep in mind that men of violence are rarely well adjusted individuals):

The Gunfighter – an unstable and somewhat paranoid (which is why he’s still alive) gun for hire. He doesn’t care which side he’s fighting for as long as he gets paid. He doesn’t have much patience for diplomacy or long winded conversations, and if he gets a bad feeling he goes for his guns. Being paranoid, he gets bad feelings a lot, so unless you like shooting your way in and out, consider getting someone else. Holding out on him might give him the wrong ideas about the partnership. Other than that he’s a great guy to be around.

The Preacher – a man of God dedicated to saving sinners’ immortal souls but showing a callous disregard for their mortal bodies. He’ll join you if you join the Church of the Elect to make sure you deliver what you promised and keep you from having second thoughts. He won’t act against the Church’s interests and won’t tolerate your lack of faith, should you ever display it (he would find it very disturbing). Once he’s in your party, you either do what he says or you kill him, which will displease the Church greatly. You might think it’s a bit harsh but religious fanatics rarely make great traveling companions and joining the Church is more than a cosmetic choice.

The Colonel – a former officer of the Protectors of the Mission, makes the best damn fried chicken on the ship. He failed the Mission one time too many and had to switch sides in order to avoid honorable death by firing squad of his peers. The Protectors want him dead more than ever and tried to kill him several times, so he’s well motivated to help you, should you side with the Brotherhood. Then again, he’s equally well motivated to fuck you over if it ends the “misunderstanding” with the Protectors and restores him to his rank and privileges afforded by it.

The Wastelander – a rather antisocial mutant who makes a living exploring the damaged areas of the ship and stripping them of anything valuable. Sort of the ‘mountain man’ of the ship. He had a falling out with the Covenant, so now he bears a special hatred for all religious folks, including the Church. Religion is the only topic that can get him all worked up, so don’t take him places where someone might ask if you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior. He will leave you if you join a faction, but if you’re a “burn it to the ground” kinda guy, the Wastelander is your man.

What's 'wasteland', you ask?

wasteland_zps4yl7kaeh.jpg


Breached_Hull_zpszy0aenup.jpg

Anyway, back to the party members...

Fortunately, there's one party member who's actually very easy to get along with - Unit Romeo Whiskey Sierra, model XV. When you first find this droid, it's barely more than some scrap metal, but if you put enough effort (not to mention Mechanical and Computer skills, as well as some missing modules), Romeo will blossom into a beautiful, murderous butterfly.

romeo_concept_zpscpj51zon.jpg

Flood lights, two built-in grenade launchers (brainwave disruptor and stasis field grenades if you can find them,
can be modified to use ship-made grenades (gas, flashbang, smoke), two plasma guns. You can replace pretty much
anything including the armor, building a heavier or much lighter, "dune buggy" style model.​

* * *​
/on activating it

“Place your weapons on the ground and move your hands to the back of your head.” Though the droid is stripped of armaments, its voice conveys the perfect mixture of authority and threat. “Failure to comply will be considered an admission of treason, which carries the penalty of death. Absent an appeal, penalties are administered immediately.”

1. “I don’t see any weapons.”
2. “Treason?”
3. Turn it off.

/weapons
“Apologies, Citizen. Your complaint has been forwarded to the Ship Authority interim auxiliary sub-office of Citizen Rights. Please allow 24 hours to verify the complaint and contact you with the response. Be advised that the penalty for filing a false complaint against an Autonomous Corrective Unit is one year penal labor.”

/treason
“Be advised that ignorance of the law, rowdiness, and loitering are all breaches of your duties as a citizen. You have the option to make a voluntary confession in exchange for leniency. This offer is limited in duration: 30 seconds... 29... 28...”

/turn it off
"Unauthorized deactivation of an Autonomous Corrective Unit is punisha—"

/after rebooting it.

“Identify yourself.”
“Autonomous Corrective Unit Romeo Whiskey Sierra, model XV. Primary protocol: Riot Suppression.”

“Riots?”
“Riot: violation of Ship Authority Code Encouraging the Well-being and Positive Attitude of Citizens, Chapter IV, Section 12.0064; a criminal offense against public order involving three or more people."

“Status?”
Power 0.9%
Structural Integrity: 17% [17 hit points]
Armor: Electromagnetic Reactive Armor [damage resistance: 7]
Battle Reflexes: Integrated Module [6 action points]
Damage Control: Not Installed [0HP repaired per turn]
Target Acquisition: GE-Optic, Marksman 3000, [60% accuracy]
Weapon System: Not Installed [0 points of damage]

“GE-Optic?”

“GE-Optic is a division of General Electric dedicated to manufacturing cost-effective targeting solutions for home security products. With Marksman 3000, GE has preserved the popular features of its Marksman 2000SE while completely redesigning the thermal sensors to address consumer concerns about the alleged sensor malfunction in Marksman 2500LX which resulted in one hundred and twenty-six allegedly wrongful civilian deaths.”

“Is there anything better than sixty percent accuracy?”

“Fifty to sixty percent accuracy is an ideal performance range for Riot Suppression Units, which are designed to disperse unarmored antagonists within an acceptable level of casualties. After examining the data from twelve G50 countries, H&K Robotics’ market research has suggested that casualties below 40% are not high enough to dissuade lawbreakers, whereas casualties above 70% deplete the local workforce to economically unfeasible levels.”

“Are you saying Marksman 3000 is all we've got?”

“All Riot Suppression Units are outfitted with Marksman 3000 target acquisition modules. Urban Warfare Units are outfitted with BAE Systems’ Terminator M5Xi modules, which boast accuracy rates of up to 75%. Hunter-Killer Units are outfitted with Mitsubishi Electric’s Street Samurai M-series modules. I do not have specific data on their accuracy.”

“Tell me more about Urban Warfare Units.”

“In the unlikely event that Riot Suppression Units fail to successfully resolve an incident within 30 minutes, the incident is reclassified from Riot to Rebellion and Urban Warfare Units are deployed. These droids have access to a broader range of law enforcement protocols, including Enemy Combatants and Scorched Earth, the latter of which has been a trending resolution protocol with field commanders for over ten years. After the rebellion incident has been resolved, Hunter-Killer Units are deployed to find and neutralize rebellion participants tagged as instigators. These may include foreign as well as domestic targets.”

* * *​

Last but not the least, we've made good progress with the engine and moved from evaluation to active implementation. So far we implemented the dialogue editor with basic features (enough to replicate the conversation with Miltiades) as well as basic character and camera control. More on that in the new year.
 

Goral

Arcane
Patron
The Real Fanboy
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
3,552
Location
Poland
Wow, and I thought that previous update was great. Really interesting and concept art also looks awesome.

Vault Dweller Elhoim
It would be awesome if you could implement some of Desperados mechanics. For example, enemies should react to sound and different weapons should have different levels of noise. In Desperados every character we could play had a gun (besides the 6th one) and each gun had its own advantages and disadvantages. John Cooper's Colt had very high rate of fire and he was the only character who could fire three shots almost instantly (something along double tap in AoD but you could direct each attack at different opponents if you wanted by using quick action - don't want to explain what it is, you can watch it on youtube). But it got hot quite easily so you couldn't use it like a machine gun all the time (plus you need time for reloads). Sam's Winchester had very high range AND highest ammo capacity (12 shots not 6) but it's also is the slowest. Every time you shoot there is a slight lag between shots which can be lethal in some situations. It doesn't get so hot as Cooper's Colt too and wasn't as loud. Doc's revolver had almost as long range as Winchester but it got hot the quickest. It could also fire special kinds of sniper bullets and had better accuracy than the other guns (especially in sniper mode). Kate's Derringer's was super small and was easily concealable and was the most silent but it could only store 3 bullets. It also had the shortest range. And Sanchez had a shotgun which stored only 2 bullets but it was very powerful and its attack was spread out.

Things like that would make the game more interesting considering that we can only use guns to kill effectively. If some of the companions had unique abilities which we couldn't replicate it would also add to replay value and it would encourage for additional playthroughs assuming these abilities wouldn't be useless and they would offer different tactical options.

Anyway, games like Desperados could offer you some inspiration if you're planning on improving combat even further (especially since they're using XIX century weapons here). Copying some ideas from Underrail (like cameras) wouldn't be a bad idea either.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
We are doing the second revision of the combat system and will present it properly in the future updates.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Some important stuff from Vault Dweller in that thread:

I meant that the overall structure is different and you won't be joining factions the way you joined a faction in AoD, becoming an active member. Instead you'd side with a faction and do your best to protect its interests after you made your bet.

Reconsidered and changed the party size to 4 after Dungeon Rats. Basically the bigger your party, the more enemies we have to throw at you, the more combat participants we have on the screen, the longer you have to wait for your turn.

No matter how you "optimize" it, you're still bound to have a lot of characters patiently waiting for their turn. Large numbers work better in RT (i.e. the Infinity Engine games) when you're able to mow through a dozen of enemies in a few seconds, but it will slow TB to a crawl. High fantasy games can keep the numbers low by throwing bigger monsters at you (3 orcs are worth more than 9 kobolds, etc) but we have mostly human enemies which does impose certain limits.

The problem isn't the party size itself but what we have to throw at your party to a) present a strong challenge as we understand the term and b) stop you dead to maintain the setting's consistency.

Yes. You will have a story-driven base of operations and the inactive party members will have to defend it from attacks while you're away on missions. If you don't have any or enough party members, you'd have to hire mercenaries.

Actual battles.

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7181.0.html

"It will start simple – while scavenging you stumble upon something clearly valuable, a long-forgotten device that wasn’t meant to be used until the ship lands (but can be used in-flight). Not being an expert on such things, you need to know exactly what this thing is to figure out what one of the factions will pay for it, which is a good way to introduce you to the three main factions in Act 1, whereas in AoD the Noble Houses were introduced one Act at a time for storytelling reasons (escalating events)
...
Once you know what that device is (at about 30% of the game), you’ll offer it to the faction of your choice, at which point your relationship with the other factions will go down, introducing an aspect we didn’t really touch in AoD – factions acting against you, attacking your base of operations, and turning locations under their influence against you, which will boost replayability."

So basically you'll have to protect that device and your base of operations will be set around it. You won't be able to upgrade it DS-style but you might be able to repair the existing security systems and get some help from your faction.

It depends on whether or not you can continue without it. Quoting from the same update:

"At about 70% of the game, you might realize (via learning more about the ship if you’re smart enough) that what you’re doing might not necessary be what’s best for the ship (or you personally) and get an option to do things in a very different, "fuck all factions" way. The remaining 30% of the game will be dedicated to each path within this fork, presenting different challenges and choices. So far, that’s 3 'working for a faction' paths, 3 'fuck 'em' paths, and 7 different endings without counting permutations."
 
Unwanted
Queued Shitposter
Joined
Oct 22, 2016
Messages
275
base of operations and the inactive party members will have to defend it from attacks while you're away on missions. If you don't have any or enough party members, you'd have to hire mercenaries.
Looks like a bad game mechanic. Its a fixed resource sink.
Larpers though will love teh Base!1 And the KEWL WALKER ROBOT WITH A QUEER PERSONALITY!

Hooray for Unreal, the end of the square tyranny.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom