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Game News Colony Ship Update #49: Hydroponics and Progress Update

Infinitron

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Tags: Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game; Iron Tower Studio; Vince D. Weller

It's time for another end-of-year Colony Ship development update. The beta test for the game's upcoming Early Access release was originally supposed to have begun this month, but has been delayed until at least February. Presumably the Early Access release itself, originally planned for March, will be delayed accordingly. According to the update, the last two tasks that need to be completed before the beta can begin are the programming for non-human enemies and initiation of combat upon failure of a stealth mission. However, the primary topic of the update is the Hydroponics Division, the last of the three locations that will be included in the Early Access build. It's a hostile, creature-infested jungle whose only permanent human inhabitants are the faction known as the Grangers. Their leader, Carlos Maney, makes an appearance in the accompanying batch of screenshots.




We hoped to wrap up everything in December and start the beta in mid-Jan, but we're still 3-4 weeks of work away from the finish line. I wouldn't be surprised if by the time we get there, another month of work would pop up out of nowhere, but let's stay positive and hope it's the final stretch.

On the programming side, the last hurdle is the non-human enemies. They have properties such creatures never had in our previous games, which required more work and changes than anticipated. They can be placed on walls (see the old wasteland concept), have abilities humans don't, different THC formulas that doesn't factor in stats and skills, different movement (a frog jumps over several tiles), etc.

The other task is relatively minor. When you enter a stealth mode, the designated infiltrator is removed from the party (provided you have one), which waits outside. If combat starts (if you're spotted by guards or fail to kill a guard from behind, we need to switch to the party mode and teleport the party inside the building (at the entrance point, not next to you).

On the scripting side, the framework is done. What's left to script are the journal entries, quest rewards, and reputation modifiers. Overall, the game is shaping up well and we hope you'll enjoy it. The first chapter has 3 locations (the Pit, Armory, Hydroponics), 22 quests with multiple solutions, and 30+ fights.

Speaking of Hydroponics:

The Hydroponic Division was originally conceived to adapt Terran plants to the anticipated environment of Proxima Centauri. Extensive gene-editing was employed to develop resistance to alien fungi and pests, and accelerated adaptation hacked into the plants' genetic code.

Like many other critical systems, Hydroponics was abandoned during the Mutiny. The carefully cultivated flora and fauna was left on its own in harsh environs designed to propagate rapid and brutal evolutionary cycles. When men returned to reclaim Hydroponics, they discovered an environment as wild and hostile as any Earth jungle...

That's all for now. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your families!
Now that's a cool-looking area. Those frogs lurking in the first screenshot have been mentioned before.
 

*-*/\--/\~

Cipher
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Judging by that screenshot, they can build a huge space faring colony ship, yet stick with tommy guns as weapons? :D
 

Trashos

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When you enter a stealth mode, the designated infiltrator is removed from the party (provided you have one), which waits outside. If combat starts (if you're spotted by guards or fail to kill a guard from behind, we need to switch to the party mode and teleport the party inside the building (at the entrance point, not next to you).

Sounds a bit weird? Cant' we stealth for parts of a building?
 

Drowed

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Judging by that screenshot, they can build a huge space faring colony ship, yet stick with tommy guns as weapons? :D

Not really, you haven't really followed anything about the story of the game, correct? You can check out more news about the game at the Codex's TAG to know why the technology used in the weapons has almost no relation with the technology you see on the ship itself.
 

Elhoim

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Sounds a bit weird? Cant' we stealth for parts of a building?

I'll elaborate a bit. This is mostly for quest based stealth solutions. For example, stealing from a locked container in a back room, or infiltrating Mercy's compound to take her down. You are not forced to go with just one character into stealth, you can use several. Experience will be divided, and more people moving means more noise, but you can do things like taking two separate paths, etc. Also you can use it to position your party for combat, if you think that your designated infiltrator won't pull it off.

There are several designs in the game regarding stealth. Sometimes they are in small locations, with the goal of stealing something or rescuing a hostage, so it's better to go with just one guy because the enemies are very close by. Or others are more "open ended" like getting into a fortified compound, so going with more than one might open up interesting scenarios like taking down two nearby guys in succession (one takes each), or use the opportunity to create an ambush with the whole party.
 

*-*/\--/\~

Cipher
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Judging by that screenshot, they can build a huge space faring colony ship, yet stick with tommy guns as weapons? :D

Not really, you haven't really followed anything about the story of the game, correct? You can check out more news about the game at the Codex's TAG to know why the technology used in the weapons has almost no relation with the technology you see on the ship itself.

Thanks. I mostly try to ignore games until they are released, preferably with a few patches on top.
 

Haba

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Judging by that screenshot, they can build a huge space faring colony ship, yet stick with tommy guns as weapons? :D

Not really, you haven't really followed anything about the story of the game, correct? You can check out more news about the game at the Codex's TAG to know why the technology used in the weapons has almost no relation with the technology you see on the ship itself.

Don't assume it to make sense, though.

Basically the ship is full of hipsters who've moved from making "retro style games" to "retro style guns".
 

Goral

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Don't assume it to make sense, though.

Basically the ship is full of hipsters who've moved from making "retro style games" to "retro style guns".
Of course it does make sense. It's much easier to create a gunpowder gun (and gunpowder) than lenses or electronics (or fuel/energy source to operate them) that would be needed for energy weapons. It always cracked me up when in Star Trek phasers could be disabled during transport or in other situations they just didn't work even though a gun would definitely work. AK-47 is a better rifle than any American one thanks to its reliability and cheapness and has been for over 70 years and even a nigger can make it assuming he can operate a lathe and has internet access.
 

Haba

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Don't assume it to make sense, though.

Basically the ship is full of hipsters who've moved from making "retro style games" to "retro style guns".
Of course it does make sense. It's much easier to create a gunpowder gun (and gunpowder) than lenses or electronics (or fuel/energy source to operate them) that would be needed for energy weapons. It always cracked me up when in Star Trek phasers could be disabled during transport or in other situations they just didn't work even though a gun would definitely work. AK-47 is a better rifle than any American one thanks to its reliability and cheapness and has been for over 70 years and even a nigger can make it assuming he can operate a lathe and has internet access.

Just like it is silly stuff pixelated fonts into 4k games, it is silly to put tommy guns into sci-fi. Why pick something massively flawed when you have the hundreds of years of potential advancement to draw from? That is pure hipsterism.

Someone says: make a bow. You take a branch of wood and piece of string instead of making an arbalest - or god forbid, a compound bow with cables and pulleys.

Going for style over substance is all fine, but no need to pretend it has some intellectual reason behind it. It just looks cool, O.K.?

I'm still trying to come up with a justification for bipedal mechs in sci-fi. The space pope bans drones and planes?
 

thesheeep

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I'm still trying to come up with a justification for bipedal mechs in sci-fi. The space pope bans drones and planes?
Flight requires a lot more energy for movement than any kind of ground vehicle (for the same amount of weight/equipment).
Traditional wheel-based vehicles require the least amount of energy, but also suck at traversing more difficult terrain.
Legs allow traversal of pretty much anything, with high maneuverability. Not sure about energy cost, but probably somewhere between the other two.
You are right about only two legs being very impractical, though. Realistically (and afaik what is already being used in military on a smaller scale) legged vehicles would have at least four legs.

Hear me out, though:
Wheeled vehicles + legged vehicles: Spider-mechs on rollerblades!
 

Drowed

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Just like it is silly stuff pixelated fonts into 4k games, it is silly to put tommy guns into sci-fi. Why pick something massively flawed when you have the hundreds of years of potential advancement to draw from? That is pure hipsterism.

I mean, if you ask the astronauts who are, at this very moment, on the ISS to create a working pistol, would they succeed? I would strongly bet against it, even though firearms have existed for almost 1000 years and the space station is equipped with devices that are extremely advanced when compared to the technology that the average citizen has access to in his day to day life. It is an extremely old technology indeed, but astronauts don't necessarily have easy access to produce this kind of thing. Keeping the proper proportions, I would say that the same applies here: there is no reason to believe that after a journey that took centuries, the settlers would have easy access to these technologies especially in an environment that is degrading over time.

But being fair here, I actually believe that access would not be as rare/difficult as it sounds in the environment described by VD. Technologies such as 3D printers and AIs with deeplearning already exist in our society, so I believe that in an even more advanced society (capable of creating a spacecraft of such proportions) would certainly have access to even better technologies that would allow the self-maintenance of the spacecraft and the means of production. But I do believe that if there is a decline in this type of access to technology, it is undoubtedly justifiable based much more on social issues than really technological ones - just think of the dark ages.
 

Haba

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Keeping the proper proportions, I would say that the same applies here: there is no reason to believe that after a journey that took centuries, the settlers would have easy access to these technologies especially in an environment that is degrading over time.

But being fair here, I actually believe that access would not be as rare/difficult as it sounds in the environment described by VD. Technologies such as 3D printers and AIs with deeplearning already exist in our society, so I believe that in an even more advanced society (capable of creating a spacecraft of such proportions) would certainly have access to even better technologies that would allow the self-maintenance of the spacecraft and the means of production.

And 3D printing would/will probably lead into "advanced" gun designs that are also easier to manufacture. I mean, 100 years in our future will still be ancient past for those colonists.

Maybe a "lore reason" like the colonists being some kind of fundies that want to turn back time, banning advanced tech (even if the ship itself is very much opposite of that) would be easier to stomach. And then the colonists are recreating ancient weapon technology based on a cache of forbidden lore (comics) someone smuggled onboard. And hence, all the swords are katanas and guns are tommy guns and muskets.
 

lukaszek

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deterministic system > RNG
 
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