Colony Ship Early Access Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Pink Eye]

I think pirating small indie games is lame.

 

[fantadomat]

On the subjects of levels.

I prefer low levels, DnD is at its best when you're leveling your characters to 10, not when you go for level 25. So right now the level cap is 10. We might consider raising it to 12 but that's as far as it would go. Since we're in the very early stages of Early Access (it's been less than a month), balance, difficulty, and XP gain rates are expected to change. We let you play on easy, now we'll start tightening things up a bit, starting with the skill gain.

That is retarded in me book. This is no d&d lol,the system is totally different. It would be better if you keep the current speed of advancement,rise the cap to 20-25,and rise the checks. On level up make it mix between getting a skill point and a feat,to add a bit of levelling diversity. Frequent levelling is a fun feature of RPGS,if you end up levelling like 7 times for 20-30 hours game it will be pretty stagnant and boring. When i played this demo/ea i was really impressed by your advances compared to AoD,but it seems that you still want to make a tryhard corridor shooter. Anyway,it is your game so do as you see fit.

 

[Parabalus]

On the subjects of levels.

I prefer low levels, DnD is at its best when you're leveling your characters to 10, not when you go for level 25. So right now the level cap is 10. We might consider raising it to 12 but that's as far as it would go. Since we're in the very early stages of Early Access (it's been less than a month), balance, difficulty, and XP gain rates are expected to change. We let you play on easy, now we'll start tightening things up a bit, starting with the skill gain.

It's just the combat skill gain, the others seem fine. Knock combat down to their level.

I think pirating small indie games is lame.

Is ITS even small indie anymore?

 

[Vault Dweller]

This is no d&d lol,the system is totally different.

My point was that DnD is more interesting when the levels are low (i.e. ToEE) when you have to carefully choose your feats not when you're planning prestige class behemoths.

It would be better if you keep the current speed of advancement,rise the cap to 20-25,and rise the checks.

Which caps are you talking about? Level or skill? The system wasn't designed to accommodate 20-25 feats, that's way too powerful.

Is ITS even small indie anymore?

I wouldn't call a 5-man team big.

 

[fantadomat]

My point was that DnD is more interesting when the levels are low (i.e. ToEE) when you have to carefully choose your feats not when you're planning prestige class behemoths.

Yes it is,but you also have like 20 classes and a lot of vercitility in combat. The low-mid level is better in there because of the enemy you get to kill are more interesting. While you have people with guns and people with melee weapons,not much versatility in combat lol.

Which caps are you talking about? Level or skill? The system wasn't designed to accommodate 20-25 feats, that's way too powerful.

Yes,that will be retarded. But it will be fine if it is like fallout,getting feat once every x levels and getting a skill point or health or more accuracy at different level will be way to pass it. For skills level seems reasonable,judging by the needed xp.

 

[Pink Eye]

I hope we to get fight different types of creatures in Colony Ship. You have all types of potential with the mutated creatures which were experimented on by humans. I remember in Age of Decadence. You can get trapped in a house and forced to fight against a giant scorpion thing - I think that's what it was.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I hope we to get fight different types of creatures in Colony Ship.

There will be 6 types of creatures; more if players demand it.

 

[Pink Eye]

WHOA! THAT LOOKS FUCKING EPIC! IT'S A SPACE JELLY FISH OF DOOM!

 

[CappenVarra]

There will be 6 types of creatures; more if players demand it.

let's be clear here then: the players do demand it

 

[Pink Eye]

I demand it too! More space creatures of doom!

 

[Alienman]

I hope we to get fight different types of creatures in Colony Ship.

There will be 6 types of creatures; more if players demand it.

 

[Tigranes]

I think obsessing about level cap in and of itself is moronic, but with CS beta, I did see a real concern around build/party variety - i.e. how easy will it be for many playthroughs to cover most of the skills and buildstyles to the point that you lose out on replayability or distinctiveness. Part of that had to do with whether the perk/trait range was too narrow & with not enough 'special' / experience-changing ones. I do think this is a combination of all the decisions CS has made - party, learn by doing, etc.

 

[Alpharius]

I guess the combat would be better if the highest combat skill you can get at the end of the PIT would be 3-4 instead of 8 or 9 with solo + tagged + mastermind.

The difference in xp for a given skill between untagged + full party (assuming all receive equal xp) and tagged mastermind + solo is what 4*2.5=10 times? So thats about 6 levels (assuming each next level requires 1.5 times as much xp as previous one). So if a solo mastermind will have a most used taged combat skill at 10 at some point in the game then a character with full party will have it at 4 or 5 if untaged and not mastermind.



Seems reasonable, although Pit already kinda has too much xp for that.

 

[Pladio]

If anyone is interested, there's a patch out in the beta branch on steam.

 

[Goral]

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7936.msg160181.html#msg160181

If you want to take a look at the upcoming changes:

- Right click on Colony Ship in your Steam library and select Properties, then click on Betas.
- Select Public Testing from the drop-down list

Here's what's in the update:

Party Management:

- Click on the red icon next to the inventory icon to open up the party management screen.
- Set designated specialists to handle skill checks when clicking on objects (to avoid switching characters manually)
- Heal your characters with medkits (the amount healed is modified by your biotech skill)
- Set auto-heal after combat (using the available medkits).
- Set auto-reload weapons after combat (starting a fight with an empty gun is a thing of the past now)

Improvements

- You can now give implants to your party members based on their preferences
- Added more party banter in the Armory and Hydroponics
- Added new interactions when exploring Hydroponics
- Added an option to steal a badge in the Regulators HQ
- Added a sneaking opportunity in Camp Reid in Hydroponics
- Added some loot in Zeke's backroom, with a different way in
- Added two extra stashes in the Pit
- You can now train party members (same trainers as before, for now)
- Can't see beyond the vault door in the Armory before you open it (limited 'fog of war')

Changes

- Removed a few climbing events in the hydroponics area.
- Cloaking field base thermal detection resistance is 10 (from 25).
- Cloaking field base detection chance is 35 (from 25).
- Thermal vision is now properly reduced by thermal detection resistance
- Starfish now recovers 10 HP when draining.
- Starfish DR is now 10/8/6 (from 6/4/3).
- Added +1 damage to shotguns.
- Tweaked scanner's and worker googles' stats
- Minor increases to DR and penalties to armors.
- Changed Faythe assassin feat. Bladed THC +10, CS Chance +5, Penetration +10, Takedown +15.
- Added check value to doors and containers cursor text.
- Bulldog II is a bit harder to get, but it's a bit more powerful.
- Tweaks to exploration reputation.
- Increased weight of misses on defense xp distribution.
- Slightly reduced skill gain from attack and defense XP.
- Items now sell for 10% of the price.
- Tweaked the prices of several items.
- Removed Master Trader feat and refunded 1 feat point to characters that had it


Fixes

- Fixed a door in the Armory being usable in stealth but not in combat.
- Power Vest properly reduces initiative instead of increasing it.
- Fixed issues with the Armory's elevator with a party member selected.
- Fixed scav stealth dialogue coming up twice if you clicked repeatedly when interacting with it.
- Removed infinite attack XP exploit on turret
- Fixed the character name text field caret bug
- Missed frog attacks now can trigger counter-attacks, reported properly in the textbox.
- Fixed some cases when grenades could be thrown through the floor (from the first floor to the second)
- Fixed T-pose animations happening in some rare cases.
- Starfish sounds are now affected by volume controls properly.
- Fixed Swing attack becoming unusable after spending AP on other combat actions.
- Fixed doors incorrectly executing opening/closing scripts on game start.
- Gadgets don't stay active after stealth end anymore.
- Fixed incorrect combat rolls when attacking turrets.
- Fixed shots sometimes missing starfish if it's displaced after the 'hug'

That's about it. Hope you'll enjoy it.

Looks better and better, especially party management or giving implants that we don't need.

 

[retinoid]

This along with Wrath of the Righteous are looking very promising. Age of Decadence and Kingmaker are my two favorite RPGs of the last few years and now both devs are delivering again. It's a very good time to be a fan of the genre imo. All we need now is an Elex 2 announcement and the trifecta will be complete.

 

[Pink Eye]

The squatter fight is so freaking intense. Just want to show it off, so you can see how excited I get whenever I do this fight:

Spoiler

Excuse the music, I was listening to Ravenloft.

Isn't it awesome?! It's one of my two favorite encounters - the other one is the frog encounter that has: three bullfrogs + two spitters + one psyker. Like it a bunch, really challenging. I always spend a lot of time preparing before doing it.

 

[Abu Antar]

On my phone. Can only link the tweet for now: https://www.rpgwatch.com/articles/colony-ship-interview-509.html

Colony Ship Interview

Pladio has asked Iron Tower Studio a few question about their Colony Ship RPG.

RPGWatch: Hello Vince, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions. Now that your new game, Colony Ship RPG is out for Early Access, can you start by introducing the game? What type of game is it and can you introduce the setting?

Vince: Like our first game, it's a turn-based isometric RPG with plenty of dialogues, skill-checks, branching storyline, and multiple solutions. It takes place on a generation ship – a giant colony ship traveling at sub-light speed, so the journey will take centuries. Many generations will be born on the ship and will die on the ship before she reaches her destination. Your character is one of the Shipborn, chained to a fate chosen by one of your distant ancestors.


RPGWatch: Will the ship ever reach its destination?

Vince: In the tentative sequel.


RPGWatch: For people who know Iron Tower Studio, your previous games, the Age of Decadence and Dungeon Rats, had a vastly different setting to this one. What made you depart from the post-apocalyptic Roman world to a space faring setting?

Vince: We want to tell different stories and I'm sure our audience wants to 'visit' different worlds. Hopefully they'll enjoy visiting this one.



RPGWatch: But why on a space ship? If you want to do different worlds, it could also be post-apoc, western, fantasy, etc. It probably wasn't a random choice, so why space faring?

Vince: Because a generation ship is a fascinating concept that raises a lot of interesting questions. And it’s a perfect ant-farm where different societies are forced to coexist within a limited space, influencing and affecting each other’s development while fighting for that limited space, which adds “the end justifies the means” pressure.

Spoiler

RPGWatch: If you do want to do new settings with a new game, does this then not exclude sequels?

Vince: The main problem with sequels is that the setting and gameplay remain the same. It's nearly impossible to switch gears and offer the player something radically different. With Colony Ship, this problem is easy to solve, not because we're so clever, but because the setting itself implies its solution: we land the Ship and start the Colony.


RPGWatch: One of the main differences in gameplay between the Age of Decadence and Colony Ship RPG is the ability to recruit up to 3 party members. What made you want to change the gameplay to such an extent? Are you finding this to be much harder to balance?

Vince: We want to provide more choices, so players who favor solo can play alone, while players who prefer a more traditional party experience will have 10 companions to choose from.

As for balance, leading a party requires Charisma, so a solo fighter can focus on the physical stats instead. Plus a solo fighter would level up faster, which is another advantage.


RPGWatch: Following on from the above, does it mean that the game is more likely to be easier for people to play through when in a party of four. In other words, is playing solo hard mode. Would you say this will make your game more accessible to people who complained about the difficulty of the Age of Decadence?

Vince: Quite a few players beat the first chapter solo, so I think it's a matter of personal preference. As before, the diplomatic path is the easy mode (or story mode, if you prefer) whereas combat remains challenging regardless of the size of your party. At least that's the goal.


RPGWatch: The game has now reached Early Access. Congratulations on that milestone. Seeing as this is now the third game for Iron Tower Studio, how would you appraise the reception ? Do you believe the game has gained enough visibility ? If not, what will you do to improve on this ?

Vince: Thank you. Using AoD's Early Access launch as a benchmark (as that's all we have) I think it went well. Meaning it could have been worse but I doubt it could have gone much better. Kind of if you have a crappy weapon (a game with limited appeal) with 1-4 damage range and you roll 4. Great success!

Visibility: what we've lost in the mainstream media's support (still hitting a brick wall there), we've gained in influencers' support, which is far more important. I hope that as we add more locations and improve the overall design our visibility will grow as well.



RPGWatch: There can be several reasons to use the Early Access program. Some use it to get extra funding, some to get additional testers, others to gather statistics on how the game is being played and there probably are more reasons. What are for you the most important reasons to use the Early Access program?

Vince: Feedback is the most important reason. First, you see how people play it, analyze the builds, try different fights with player-submitted save games, etc. Second, you see what people like (and add more), what they didn't like (which can be still easily addressed this early in development), what puzzles them (which can be tweaked or explained in-game). Third, you get an avalanche of suggestions, containing some real gems of players wisdom.

I can't imagine making a complex RPG without involving players early.


RPGWatch: For those who haven’t seen all your forum/news postings, can you briefly explain the expected timeframe for the game’s release?

Vince: We're aiming for 18 months (in comparison AoD was in Early Access for 24 months) with monthly updates. The next location will be added in June.


RPGWatch: To conclude, if someone offered you a gift of $250k, which you could only use for Colony Ship RPG, what would you do with it?

Vince: That's easy, we'd spend it all on level design. To properly design a location like the Engine Room (with humongous ship engines) or the Shuttle Bay or the ECLSS (Environmental Control and Life Support System), we need a lot of specific concept art done by artists more or less specializing in this area, then we need to model and texture all the objects (the more complex an object is, the longer it takes).

Right now we have the bare minimum concept art done (approx. $25k), and some 3D modeling (approx. $40k). I'd say we'd probably end up spending $100k on 3D models (which is nothing for studios with real budgets), but the biggest problem is that we don't have a dedicated level designer, which is a luxury we can't afford. Even at $50k/year that's 250k over a 5 year period.

 

[Takamori]

Regarding monsters, I hope we get monsters more like starfish bizarre thingy. Crank up the eerie feeling of meeting those monster for the first time.

The frogs I was like haha cute before I got my shit wooped. The jelly fish is giving me the same frog feeling of hahah cute

 

[Pink Eye]

I wonder what kind of attacks the jellyfish will be capable of doing. Or maybe there will be different types of them that have varying attacks.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I wonder what kind of attacks the jellyfish will be capable of doing. Or maybe there will be different types of them that have varying attacks.

With so many tentacles there is only one attack jellyfish can make. An attack against willpower. How long will our brave character's willpower last? Is there a fair lady in this container town that will boost their willpower before the battle, so they can have a fighting chance? Or will the jelly ultimately prevail and drags them to it's lair, so it may forever *feed* on them?

 

[Pink Eye]

I wonder what kind of attacks the jellyfish will be capable of doing. Or maybe there will be different types of them that have varying attacks.

With so many tentacles there is only one attack jellyfish can make. An attack against willpower. How long will our brave character's willpower last? Is there a fair lady in this container town that will boost their willpower before the battle, so they can have a fighting chance? Or will the jelly ultimately prevail and drags them to it's lair, so it may forever *feed* on them?

>With so many tentacles there is only one attack jellyfish can make.
Electricity attacks? Oh! I know! It can shock us to death! The many stings of doom! Mwaha! Beware adventurers, for this jellyfish will stun you, then devour you!

 

[Efe]

its a giant jellyfish, which means it has large volume of "sticky substances", which it uses to immobilize targets.
Beware adventurers, for this jellyfish will degrade you, then devour you!

 

[CryptRat]

Sci-fi games with jellyfish enemies are objectively the best games.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I wonder what kind of attacks the jellyfish will be capable of doing. Or maybe there will be different types of them that have varying attacks.

Energy damage when you get too close plus brainwave interference.