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Titan Outpost Release Thread

Technomancer

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MF so this infinite plutonium from traders like van hoorn and ekta - this is intentional? And was it always like that? IIRC in previous versions those first 10 were all you could buy. Now I can spam computers to mine bitcoins and buy plutonium to build even more computers. This trivializes power management. It also dulls exploration because when you find free plutonium somewhere you are no longer excited for it. From lore and worldbuilding, it seemed like it was an extremely rare resource but in-game it is practically infinite which is unfortunate. I think it should be harder to get.

fMTD51v.jpg
 

MF

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Yeah, you're right. Stock used to be limited with a (very) basic market simulation, but I removed that at some point to keep spending WCU viable throughout the game. I never adjusted the balance when I compressed the timeframe. I'll do that.
 

Technomancer

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Stock used to be limited with a (very) basic market simulation
I liked it. Was hard. Made me scratch my head, think and explore, always starving for resources. Now it's just too convenient, too easy. Spam computers, pay for resources on demand without care - get even more powerful. I immediately rushed autocollector to abuse it (that way bought stuff is instantly unloaded without any time waste). This is the moment when you disable your 4 crackers forever and never build another one because its more efficient and versatile to mine crypto and buy stuff directly from orbit.

I went hard on min-max and I have metaknowledge this time so I have like 6 construction by month 3 so I probably made it too easy for myself. But I dunno, just made sense for traders to only respawn resources once a month (when they came for methane) or something and only once per game for plutonium. I felt much more limited and that delayed snowballing effect at least.
 
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MF

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Agreed. Since I'm spending all this time on it anyway, I might as well address that properly. I realize unlimited stock was a subconscious copout.
 

MF

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Drone maintenance drops less fast. Atmospheric leak random event less likely to occur. But the primary bonus is a boost to Steam Cracker output.
 

MF

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1.31 has been released. Ended up improving a lot of things. Fortunately weekends have 16-hour workable days.

One thing that still annoys me is the loading time for the Outpost vicinity upon first entering it in a game session. I shaved off a bit, but the only remaining optimization steps are in the memory pipeline. That would probably save precious seconds, but it's so much work I just can't justify that. I'd be better off porting the entire game to a newer version of Unity at that point.
 
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Nutria

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Strap Yourselves In
I just spent the last two days playing this and I was really blown away. It's got the exploration and mystery of Alien Legacy and Dune, the intrigue of VtM: Bloodlines, and the truly unique experiences depending on character build of Age of Decadence. Plus I've never felt so immersed in an alien world.

Titan is a brilliant choice for a game on a small budget. You can't see very far, there's no vegetation, no cities, and few people but it all makes perfect sense.

I wouldn't worry about the loading times too much. They were slightly annoying but only a couple times.

The game does get way too easy halfway through. I agree with everyone above about plutonium being too easy to get. Early on, the strategic layer of the game is pushing you hard to follow the story because that's the only of getting more. But once you can just buy it, there's not much holding you back from rapidly expanding your base. On my first playthrough I got 10 computers way before I knew from the story what the significance of computers would be. And today I played a new game with on 1.31 and got pretty much the same results.

I'll put up a steam review once I calm down a little and can discuss the game without sounding like a complete ass-kisser.
 

MF

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Thanks! Great to hear.

I'll nerf the WCU income from computer rooms and bonuses some more. Didn't want to go overboard with that, but what I did now was too subtle.
 

MF

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Man, you don't have to feel pressured to suck the fun out of the game, just because 1 guy broke it. Don't get hit with a case of "balancetititis" :lol:

I won't. Fun is paramount. I like that feeling when you push through despair in an RPG and become overpowered after. The power spike in the middle is deliberate. It's just too much right now, as one of the systems gets unnecessarily trivialized.
 

The_Mask

Just like Yves, I chase tales.
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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
1.31 is beefier than the 1.3 milestone, with a lot of improvements.

A few players provided more detailed feedback, from bugs that still needed to be fixed to major and minor annoyances. Gotta fix 'em all!

Once again a heartfelt thank you to these players for helping me polish the game.

To improve mid game challenge I've also incorporated some balance tweaks.

Spoiler alert.

Changelog

Improvements
  • Stock from traders is no longer unlimited, market prices respond to global availability, stock refreshed gradually with every shipment.
  • Rover diagram changed, reflects damage when you break down on the world map screen.
  • Secret achievement now triggers directly instead of when you finish the game. It's also a little easier to get.
  • Tabs of the inventory panel that do not require the inventory buttons no longer show them.
  • Daxia's Rover upgrade now described in rover tab.
  • Nitrogen for 'For the Republic' quest can be tracked in Outpost stock window.
  • Chinese message after satellite crashed changes depending on what you did at their base, if you visit them very early in the game.
  • Easier to sit down at the driver's seat when the rover crashes.
  • Stranded Rover now has a proper location sprite.
  • Added Herschel Condcuctors research profile for the minor free upgrade you get when you build the first supercomputer.
  • Made Herschel Thermoelectric more expensive.
  • Main Menu on the title screen less jittery and consistent with the rest of the new UI. Improved legibility of a few screens.
  • Logistical map now only changes to rotation icon when you right click, like it does in the rover world map. Rotation clickable area increased.
  • Sunny disposition now lets you have 150% morale instead of a reduced decrease, anything over 100 is called 'sunny'.
  • Quantum Dot Thermoelectrics nerfed.
  • Yat-sen plutonium stock lowered.
  • Tuxing Liu Hangar ladder is now an interactable where you can spy on Daxia. It tells you to use the elevator instead.
  • Improved lighting and shadows in the main base hub.
  • Player headlights improved in Outpost vicinity.
  • Slightly reduced loading time for Outpost vicinity.



Fixes
  • Debuffs and rebuffs now work correctly when combining multiple consumables and having them expire on top of each other.
  • Stoic now correctly lowers morale decrease by 80%.
  • If you skip time and switch the date format, it will reflect the change without refreshing the window.
  • Movement commands are blocked while interacting with something and not queued up.
  • Exiting the inside builder interface with the Melt/Excavate icon in placement mode will no longer mess with the positioning highlight.
  • Tooltips no longer persist if you close a window while they're active.
  • Persuasion Goals no longer get hidden after the first negotiation in a game session.
  • While hooking up a pump, adding a part to the pump itself will no longer place it in front of the pump regardless of blockage.
  • Ling will now correctly take your transponder in all dialogue paths where he says he will.
  • Items removed from inventory through dialogue are no longer selected in the inventory panel.
  • Sparrow Lacus no longer has a broken pump in place if Abaya Lacus has a pump installed.
  • Double VO line about the decoder chip for Karl fixed.
  • Getting Torque Master perk more than once in a single game session (After reloading and picking it again) no longer stacks its effects.
  • Inventory and Equipment tabs are now easier to click when you're on the Rover tab.
  • Interactable for Talt Lander in the Outpost vicinity no longer shows an arrow deep underground when highlighting points of interest.
  • Horst double dialogue fixed when asking about Herschel Polymers.
  • Removed shipment notification after trading with Yat-Sen (his items have always been directly put in your inventory).
  • Opening research after loading a save with less progress than the current one will no longer show research that is not yet available if the research panel was open while loading.
  • Tutorial no longer displays old message on quickload.
  • Rover exit screen will no longer overlay contextual item use image if you apply an item to something just before.
  • Yat-sen interaction spot no longer moves the player character up a fraction.
  • Tuxing liu control center door fixed
  • Running animation glitch when clicking on interactables before arriving at one fixed.
  • Toolbar tooltip being enabled on reload fixed.
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Playing again after a long break. It's a wonderful little game, and it has improved since release. No crashes or any of that stuff. I will say that the dialogue/mission triggers with the two people at the Kronos base are as messed up as the day it was released, though.

For example, I saw that Val's body wasn't in the lander. I was told to continue investigating, because her body must be somewhere. In the process I walked all the way around and found William. Talked to Karl about it, and he non-chalantly drops a major plot surprise regarding Val. It was a weird delivery, but then some days later Karl tells me about this guy named William, and I need to find him, etc, as if I had never told him I found him some days/weeks earlier. Basically every single bit of dialogue/plot is like that. Also, when I want to announce I've done something, it's spotty as to whether or not there will be a dialogue option for it. Sometimes I just have to wait and then it will suddenly appear later.

Enough bitching though, the game runs smooth, the visuals and audio are as near perfect a match as possible, and I like hanging out on Titan and chatting with the characters over the comms every so often. The scene where you get to the top of the Volcano is great, the music fits it perfectly and it feels like a special discovery.

The second place Karl asked me to explore is also a nice place to relax. I actually walked out of the rover in the other direction and was wondering why it was described as an impressive sight, given that it's just rocks and dust. It wasn't until I returned to the rover that I saw the rivers. Again, the music, graphics, and theme fit perfectly.

5F18B8184458948978163CBE0E0058362900E123
 

MF

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Thanks. Nice screenshot.

Did you start a new character? Saves are mostly backward compatible, but if the save is from before 1.2 (up to summer of 2020) there will be continuity issues. Dialogue states are embedded in saves, so you would essentially be playing with a few obsolete dialogue triggers.

That said, that mystery quest has so many moving parts with interconnected entries and multiple branches. Its permutations are endless. I've covered a shitton of possibilities, but there are some variations and order of doing things that I just had to wall off here and there. To make things more complicated, Karl and Karen are constantly monitoring each other and have to be discreet or pretend not to know things. This is sometimes made explicit if your character has high awareness or you've triggered certain events and know things. So in some cases the game seems less reactive because it is too reactive, if you know what I mean.

Karen and Karl have schedules. You can ask them when the other person will be available and wait, or get them to wake each other up at the cost of some relation points. So sometimes you'll have to wait a bit until one of them wakes up to get new options and even then they may not be able to speak about it. If you wake them up, they'll have different dialogue than when they're on duty.

What makes it even more confusing is that the mystery is convoluted on purpose, with an 'obvious' explanation that emerges after some investigation and a Scooby Doo explanation that turns out not to be true either. Unless you play as a sleuth, you'll never get to the bottom of why your lander crashed. In the expansion content I expounded on this by having Magnus 'explain' everything while implying even he is an unreliable narrator.

I soon learned from my mistake of reactivity overreach. The other quest lines are still very reactive when compared to most games, but not nearly as much as the mystery. To fully cover each avenue of approach to that quest, I would have to resort to vague wording or hamfisting. In Rutger's -and to an extent Magnus- dialogue I can get away with hitting the player over the head with things because it fits the character, but the rest requires a degree of subtlety to work. Subtlety and clarity are hard to mix.

On the bright side, for future development I know how much branching and reactivity is too much. ;)

I've posted one of these before, but here is the largest of the three dialogue trees for Mission Control, which is both Karl & Karen. That's how crazy it gets. The red nodes are linked from other dialogue trees, each with their own network of dependencies to keep track of.
dialoguetree.jpg

Oh, and Nutria, I appreciate the review, thanks for the kind words.
 
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Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I can sympathise with that; my simple indie game also has branching dialogue/plotlines, and getting it to work right required plenty of troubleshooting. Also, yes, I started a new character. If memory serves, my first character completed the game by ditching the main plotline and going to Mars. I'm going to see what other options are available this time.

I ran out of polycarbon things and was basically crippled by this until I was able to buy more after the Kraken's Throat mission and from the Indian freighter. Which is weird, because everyone always says "you want to buy that? you live on Titan lmao idiot". I've built a few crackers now though, so I will never run out again.

:positive:
 

Jenkem

その目、だれの目?
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Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I helped put crap in Monomyth
bought this in winter sale and just started playing it, it's nice but I'm near the beginning and kind of lost as to what to do... I know I have to mine methane and I get how to do it, my main concern is that I want to increase energy production.. I did some research task that I thought would help (Photonic Insulation) but it doesn't seem to help and now I am doing thermoelectric updates but it says I need a mineral that I can get at a volcano, but just traveling to the volcano means I'm out of Oxygen when I get there, so I die coming back... any tips?
 

The_Mask

Just like Yves, I chase tales.
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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
  • Get Photonic Insulation first, followed by the thermoelectric upgrades. Do Karen's plutonium quest... After the Herschel channel becomes available, get their plutonium.
    [*]Keep exploring, keep excavating, buy minerals or plutonium and don't buy polymers or food unless you really have to.
    [*]You may find extra food, which may allow you to cut power to your hydroponics for maybe less than a day. I recommend doing that ONLY if your back is to the wall, which it shouldn't be.
Other than that, I'd need to see your stats.
 

Jenkem

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Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I helped put crap in Monomyth
  • Get Photonic Insulation first, followed by the thermoelectric upgrades. Do Karen's plutonium quest... After the Herschel channel becomes available, get their plutonium.
    [*]Keep exploring, keep excavating, buy minerals or plutonium and don't buy polymers or food unless you really have to.
    [*]You may find extra food, which may allow you to cut power to your hydroponics for maybe less than a day. I recommend doing that ONLY if your back is to the wall, which it shouldn't be.
Other than that, I'd need to see your stats.

I'm at the beginning so I might just reroll now that I know how the game plays, what do you recommend for stats? and how do I go up the freakin' volcano without dying, can I craft oxygen tanks or something? "don't cut hydroponics" but you literally have to to do research or build stuff at the point where I am..

"which may allow you to cut power to your hydroponics for maybe less than a day. I recommend doing that ONLY if your back is to the wall, which it shouldn't be" sounds like I shouldn't be cutting hydroponics but there's no other way to power research or construction without turning it off, which is why I want to increase power
 

Nutria

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The insulation cuts down how much power you have to put into the heating system and frees it up for other uses.

You can make batteries to keep you alive longer outdoors. Go to the construction thing and switch to the "table" tab and you'll see it as an option. When it's complete, transfer it from the outpost inventory to yours and equip it.
 

Nutria

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It's okay to cut hydroponics for a few days, but when you get a message saying the plants are wilting, you better turn it back on.
 

The_Mask

Just like Yves, I chase tales.
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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
what do you recommend for stats?
Titan Outpost is actually a very good RPG (shocker), and no stat is useless. I see no reason to reroll. But you're free to do whatever you want, obviously.
Going on top of the volcano can be done later, if you can't do it now.
You may find batteries to recharge your suit. Or other tricks/upgrades.
 

Jenkem

その目、だれの目?
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Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I helped put crap in Monomyth
dunno if this is a bug or something but I accepted an exploration quest from herschel, went there and did all 3 areas and it was marked as checked off in my journal, so I thought I was meant to talk to him about it and there was no dialogue option about it and now it is appearing as unmarked in my journal..
 

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