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- Jan 28, 2011
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Tags: Colony Ship; Iron Tower Studio; Vince D. Weller
Now that he's done with Age of Decadence, Vault Dweller has returned to his monthly schedule of Colony Ship RPG development updates. The latest one is a hefty variety pack of an update introducing the Pit, the game's starter town which is designed to be more familiar to RPG players than some of the game's later areas. The update includes a bunch of snippets of text from the game's script with details about the Pit's characters and locations. It's also got some images of guns (because why not?) and more concept art. But I think the most welcome part will be the first look it offers at Colony Ship RPG's portraits, which are very much in the same style as Age of Decadence's. I can't possibly quote the entire thing here, so here's a very limited excerpt:
Now that he's done with Age of Decadence, Vault Dweller has returned to his monthly schedule of Colony Ship RPG development updates. The latest one is a hefty variety pack of an update introducing the Pit, the game's starter town which is designed to be more familiar to RPG players than some of the game's later areas. The update includes a bunch of snippets of text from the game's script with details about the Pit's characters and locations. It's also got some images of guns (because why not?) and more concept art. But I think the most welcome part will be the first look it offers at Colony Ship RPG's portraits, which are very much in the same style as Age of Decadence's. I can't possibly quote the entire thing here, so here's a very limited excerpt:
Introducing something new and different isn’t an easy task. A fantasy game like AoD offers many familiar concepts: a local lord in charge of a town, different guilds, rival Houses, traveling preachers, etc. None of it raises any questions or requires any lengthy explanations.
The Colony Ship Game is very different and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and a lot of concepts that need to be explained without overwhelming the player with the new info. That’s one of the reasons you start the game in the Pit, the container town, instead of the much stranger Habitats. It offers some familiarity and gives you plenty of second-hand information from other people.
The Pit will give you two locations: the relatively safe "main street" and the not so safe “bad part of town”. Overall, it will give you more places of interest and things to do than Teron, including an arena that will allow you to test your character fairly early and figure out your limits.
Other notable locations include the Regulators, a local church, a whorehouse, a prison, a gambling den, various stores, and entire town "blocks" occupied by different crews of scavengers and other men of ill repute. They will provide you with some bits of common knowledge as well as quests properly introducing other locations.
So far we have 12 quests written and mapped out, including a 6-quest local conflict between the Regulators and the self-proclaimed mayor, aka Order that’s not all that great vs Chaos that’s not all that bad. The conflict fits perfectly well into the belief system I mentioned earlier and comes with long-term consequences you’ll be able to experience in-game (i.e. not in the slides).
So in one corner we have the challenger:
Rumor has it that Captain Braxton once served a higher power, that in the days before his crisis of faith and the subsequent falling out with the Church of the Elect he was known as Faithful Gunner Jeremiah Braxton. Speculation about why he left is abundant, but as is often the case no story is more compelling than the others.
Backed up by a few like-minded men and picking up more willing recruits along the way, Braxton left the Church behind and ended up in the Pit, a place where reliable fighting men are always in demand. Around the time of his arrival, the Brotherhood had started showing a keen interest in the Pit, eager to establish a foothold there. Braxton and his newly christened Regulators offered the good people of the Pit their services and after much debate they were hired to drive the Brotherhood’s men out, which was accomplished with brutal efficiency.
In the other corner we have the incumbent "mayor":
Wasteland is the affectionate name used to describe the now uncharted miles of scorched corridors and decks that bore the brunt of the fighting during the Mutiny. It is even rumored that the hull has been breached in certain sections, leaving them open to the void of space. This unstable no-man's-land is the principal hunting ground for folks willing to gamble their lives against the chance of finding old and outlawed tech.
For a scavenger, Jonas was more successful and more ambitious than most. One of the key difficulties for a professional scav is to extract your finds as quickly as possible, since anyone else stumbling across your good fortune will quickly try to make it their own. In order to facilitate more efficient runs into the Wasteland, Jonas set up a base camp in Cargo Hold #3, right next to the action. Such a good idea couldn't remain secret for long, and his fellow scavengers soon began pitching their tents nearby. With its increasing popularity, the camp attracted a growing crowd of traders, whores, and other hangers-on, and people began to see it as a rugged alternative to the Habitats, which promised safety, but insisted on submission in exchange.
At some point Jonas realized that more money was waiting to be made right there in the Pit, as it had come to be called, than out in the Wasteland. Thus he opened The Promised Land, the finest and only whorehouse in town. The success of this venture, and his own popularity, led to his role today as the de facto mayor of this frontier town.
In case you're wondering the goggles and other gear will be available to your character as well and the inventory will have special slots for goggles and breathing masks. In the next update we'll introduce gadgets and explains how they work.
Be sure to check out the full update. It's good enough to post three times.The Colony Ship Game is very different and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and a lot of concepts that need to be explained without overwhelming the player with the new info. That’s one of the reasons you start the game in the Pit, the container town, instead of the much stranger Habitats. It offers some familiarity and gives you plenty of second-hand information from other people.
The Pit will give you two locations: the relatively safe "main street" and the not so safe “bad part of town”. Overall, it will give you more places of interest and things to do than Teron, including an arena that will allow you to test your character fairly early and figure out your limits.
Other notable locations include the Regulators, a local church, a whorehouse, a prison, a gambling den, various stores, and entire town "blocks" occupied by different crews of scavengers and other men of ill repute. They will provide you with some bits of common knowledge as well as quests properly introducing other locations.
So far we have 12 quests written and mapped out, including a 6-quest local conflict between the Regulators and the self-proclaimed mayor, aka Order that’s not all that great vs Chaos that’s not all that bad. The conflict fits perfectly well into the belief system I mentioned earlier and comes with long-term consequences you’ll be able to experience in-game (i.e. not in the slides).
So in one corner we have the challenger:
Rumor has it that Captain Braxton once served a higher power, that in the days before his crisis of faith and the subsequent falling out with the Church of the Elect he was known as Faithful Gunner Jeremiah Braxton. Speculation about why he left is abundant, but as is often the case no story is more compelling than the others.
Backed up by a few like-minded men and picking up more willing recruits along the way, Braxton left the Church behind and ended up in the Pit, a place where reliable fighting men are always in demand. Around the time of his arrival, the Brotherhood had started showing a keen interest in the Pit, eager to establish a foothold there. Braxton and his newly christened Regulators offered the good people of the Pit their services and after much debate they were hired to drive the Brotherhood’s men out, which was accomplished with brutal efficiency.
Wasteland is the affectionate name used to describe the now uncharted miles of scorched corridors and decks that bore the brunt of the fighting during the Mutiny. It is even rumored that the hull has been breached in certain sections, leaving them open to the void of space. This unstable no-man's-land is the principal hunting ground for folks willing to gamble their lives against the chance of finding old and outlawed tech.
For a scavenger, Jonas was more successful and more ambitious than most. One of the key difficulties for a professional scav is to extract your finds as quickly as possible, since anyone else stumbling across your good fortune will quickly try to make it their own. In order to facilitate more efficient runs into the Wasteland, Jonas set up a base camp in Cargo Hold #3, right next to the action. Such a good idea couldn't remain secret for long, and his fellow scavengers soon began pitching their tents nearby. With its increasing popularity, the camp attracted a growing crowd of traders, whores, and other hangers-on, and people began to see it as a rugged alternative to the Habitats, which promised safety, but insisted on submission in exchange.
At some point Jonas realized that more money was waiting to be made right there in the Pit, as it had come to be called, than out in the Wasteland. Thus he opened The Promised Land, the finest and only whorehouse in town. The success of this venture, and his own popularity, led to his role today as the de facto mayor of this frontier town.
