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Game News Colony Ship Update #34: Combat Demo Update - New Screenshots

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

I was hoping the first Colony Ship development update for 2019 might finally deliver some gameplay footage. Instead we have yet more screenshots from the combat demo. This time however the screenshots form a kind of mini-Let's Play with captions describing what's happening, so I guess we're getting closer. I'll post them in order:




Demo progress update:

We play the demo daily, ironman-style (since we don't any have save/load functionality yet), then report issues and observations. Naturally, it's a very important step that highlights balance and interface issues, and suggests better ways of doing things. In Jan we fixed a lot of bugs that were getting in the way, implemented textbox messages (now the player gets a full picture of what's going on), reworked feats, and did the first balance pass. Combat is very challenging and even a single opponent can put an end to your career. Going alone against 3 guys tends to result in a very quick death, cover or no cover. The AI flanks you like there's no tomorrow and uses a full range of attacks.

Grenades are done, but we're still working on the visual effects. Gadgets are still not done (didn't have time); we got about half the armor/goggles/gas masks modeled but not textured yet; and we only have a handful of portraits needed for the demo. The demo is in a better shape than it was in Dec, but we aren't there yet.

Anyway, this is boring to write and probably even more boring to read, so let me walk you through some screens instead:
  1. That's the first fight, so you start the demo with traditionally crappy weapons. The damage is about the same, but the rifle has a much better range and slightly better accuracy. As you can see the textbox gives you very detailed info now:
    - attack type (tells you how the enemy is fighting)
    - attack outcome: critical, hit, graze, or miss (explains the damage or lack thereof)
    - damage and DR breakdown (shows the effect of penetration on DR, among other things)
    - rolls (I assume it will be easier to accept 3 misses in a row if you see what you're rolling and the breakdown)
  2. I opened the character screen to see how my skills are doing. The character screen is also work in progress, we'll move things around, add more derived stats that should be there, move things driven by equipment like penetration to the inventory screen. Anyway, as you can see, the increase by use functionality is there. In the future we'll add this info to the main gui; here is a rough and somewhat disjointed mockup.
  3. Lucky bastard managed to pull off a headshot and scored a critical. Now Titus is dazed and confused, which isn't good. Also, it appears I learned everything John Doe had to teach me about armor (see the learn by use mechanics here).
  4. Things are not going well for Titus but the textbox messages keep me well apprised of the situation. Eventually I managed to kill the bastard, won the next fight against 3 guys (only took me 4 attempts), and moved to fight #3.
  5. After killing this gentleman who was harder than the 3 guys before him combined on account of his shotgun, I finally got me an eager legal assistant by the name of Billy.
  6. That's the aforementioned shotgun aka the Gatling gun: "A replica of the Gatling gun, named after a famous warlord of Old Earth. This multi-barreled tool of destruction brought Gatling great success in one of the home planet's many world wars". At least that's what it says on the box. Now that you got a party member, the portraits with HP/AP bars appear on the left side for your convenience. You can gain up to 3 party members in the demo; dead party members won't be replaced so you'll have to do your best to keep them alive.
That's about it, hope the next update will be a lot more interesting.​

Fingers crossed!
 

frajaq

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Damn these environments aren't looking too bad, certainly a good step up from AoD
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Vault Dweller, do you plan to implement any feat that is not related to combat?
Yes. There are stealth and general feats such Educated (+1 tagged skill), Gifted (+1 stat point), Trader (discount, special deals, dialogue checks), etc.

Not the same engine. AoD was Torque, this is UE 4.
The decision to change the engine let me worried. I'm glad that it turned out fine.
We wouldn't survive with an old engine, so as painful as changing the engine is, it had to be done. If you guys like these screens, which don't show much, the Pit and some other areas we're working on now will blow you away.

I was hoping the first Colony Ship development update for 2019 might finally deliver some gameplay footage.
Maybe it's a mistake but I don't see much value in developer videos (not when we're a couple of months away from combat beta release anyway). I can press printscreen a few times but that's as far as it goes.
 

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
Maybe it's a mistake but I don't see much value in developer videos (not when we're a couple of months away from combat beta release anyway). I can press printscreen a few times but that's as far as it goes.

It's absurd to me when a game is announced or reaches a major milestone or whatever, and then you can find gameplay preview videos of it everywhere EXCEPT on the developer's own official YouTube channel. This is important marketing material! You should have your own "gold standard" gameplay reels.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Maybe it's a mistake but I don't see much value in developer videos (not when we're a couple of months away from combat beta release anyway). I can press printscreen a few times but that's as far as it goes.

It's absurd to me when a game is announced or reaches a major milestone or whatever, and then you can find gameplay preview videos of it everywhere EXCEPT on the developer's own official YouTube channel. This is important marketing material! You should have your own "gold standard" gameplay reels.
Since I don't watch gameplay videos myself, it's hard for me to conjure some enthusiasm for taking videos of our games. It's not part of my marketing "strategy" (for the lack of a better word).
 
Self-Ejected

Harry Easter

Self-Ejected
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Messages
819
Since I don't watch gameplay videos myself, it's hard for me to conjure some enthusiasm for taking videos of our games. It's not part of my marketing "strategy" (for the lack of a better word).

I think Infinitron is right. Most people while buy a game on the gameplay they see and especially with a niche game like this it is important to show how awesome the gameplay is. Most people won't even read anything about games anymore and you would create the illusion off a closer connection to your buyers, when you post videos and comment them a bit. That's why the other studios do it, even the smaller ones.

If you want to sell this, you have to put out gameplay-videos. Or you trust in word-of-mouth.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Maybe it's a mistake but I don't see much value in developer videos (not when we're a couple of months away from combat beta release anyway). I can press printscreen a few times but that's as far as it goes.

It's absurd to me when a game is announced or reaches a major milestone or whatever, and then you can find gameplay preview videos of it everywhere EXCEPT on the developer's own official YouTube channel. This is important marketing material! You should have your own "gold standard" gameplay reels.
Since I don't watch gameplay videos myself, it's hard for me to conjure some enthusiasm for taking videos of our games. It's not
part of my marketing "strategy" (for the lack of a better word).

Sure, but isn't this the same as somebody saying, "I hate social media and I don't use it myself, so it's not going to be part of our marketing strategy"?

Having one short, decent gameplay reel around as the go-to, without going as far to do all the ridiculous HI GAIS and all that nonsense, seems like a sensible thing that doesn't require you to spend days on something you hate.
 

hpstg

Savant
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Nov 14, 2014
Messages
485
Ask someone you suspect will like it a lot to do the YouTube stuff. It's self - defeating to have people who would have loved this game, not know about it because nobody is covering it.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Will the game have inengine or animated cutscenes?
Not planned.

Sure, but isn't this the same as somebody saying, "I hate social media and I don't use it myself, so it's not going to be part of our marketing strategy"?
Pretty much.

Having one short, decent gameplay reel around as the go-to, without going as far to do all the ridiculous HI GAIS and all that nonsense, seems like a sensible thing that doesn't require you to spend days on something you hate.
I don't see the point. When the beta is out, some youtubers will make videos. Their combined audience is bigger than ours. People who follow us know what to expect, etc.

Ask someone you suspect will like it a lot to do the YouTube stuff. It's self - defeating to have people who would have loved this game, not know about it because nobody is covering it.
Not talking about nobody covering it. We'll simply leave it to those who do it for a living.
 

Deleted Member 22431

Guest
Most cRPG players don’t care about these youtube channels at all. They are graveyards. cRPG players will always prefer to read the updates and learn about the mechanics, etc. It's not surprising since the gameplay revolves aound text and stats. This emphasis on video is good for action games with expensive graphics and cut scenes. cRPG has nothing to do with it, even if some cRPG studios are foolish enough to waste their resources on this, and some easily impressed players are even more foolish to repeat this nonsense as if it was solid business advice.
 
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hpstg

Savant
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Nov 14, 2014
Messages
485
It's a beautiful idea to harken to an ever-shrinking audience, for your means of living.

Politician The worst part is that the audience is not shrinking because no new people might be interested in what is being created, but because the current members of it are elitist assholes who don't want anybody new in the club.

Then they proceed to complain that no good new games are made.

Vault Dweller, in the end it's better not to do something you're not comfortable with, nothing good would have come out of it.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
It's a beautiful idea to harken to an ever-shrinking audience, for your means of living.
I think the audience is pretty fucking big. At least a million people, which in indie terms, is massive success. Of course, many indies sell under 100k, some 10-15k, but not because they don't post gameplay videos.
 

Deleted Member 22431

Guest
It's a beautiful idea to harken to an ever-shrinking audience, for your means of living.

Politician The worst part is that the audience is not shrinking because no new people might be interested in what is being created, but because the current members of it are elitist assholes who don't want anybody new in the club.

Then they proceed to complain that no good new games are made.

The new audience for this type of game will find this game in the same way they always find these kind of games: on Steam, GoG and cRPGs forums.

The notion that developers should invest their resources on improving the game instead of youtube marketing is not motivated by elitism, but common sense. It’s a fact that most cRPG players don’t buy games because of You Tube.

Most people are easily impressed and have no personality. That’s why they defend all kinds of pointless endeavours even when it goes against the realities of what is at stake.

The audience is shrinking because (1) most people prefer to play games that are not governed by stats, don’t require a lot of text to play or learn; and (2) new potential cRPG players want to fit in and will repeat what most people do. Elitism has nothing to do with. We could all hold our hands and make a “We are the world” clip to attract new players and the result would be the same. It’s a politically correct fantasy to think otherwise and it tells more about your political preconceptions than the facts of the matter.
 
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Vatnik Wumao
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Jan 29, 2019
Messages
13,187
Location
Niggeria
Looks interesting, but will this take the AoD route which gates off content into separate "paths" locked by stat checks?
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
It's a beautiful idea to harken to an ever-shrinking audience, for your means of living.

Politician The worst part is that the audience is not shrinking because no new people might be interested in what is being created, but because the current members of it are elitist assholes who don't want anybody new in the club.

Then they proceed to complain that no good new games are made.

The new audience for this type of game will find this game in the same way they always find these kind of games: on Steam, GoG and cRPGs forums.

The notion that developers should invest their resources on improving the game instead of youtube marketing is not motivated by elitism, but common sense. It’s a fact that most cRPG players don’t buy games because of You Tube.

Most people are easily impressed and have no personality. That’s why they defend all kinds of pointless endeavours even when it goes against the realities of what is at stake.

The audience is shrinking because (1) most people prefer to play games that are not governed by stats, don’t require a lot of text to play or learn; and (2) new potential cRPG players want to fit in and will repeat what most people do. Elitism has nothing to do with. We could all hold our hands and make a “We are the world” clip to attract new players and the result would be the same. It’s a politically correct fantasy to think otherwise and it tells more about your political preconceptions than the facts of the matter.

"You're a PC faggot and that's why you think making gameplay videos of a hardcore RPG game might help them get more buyers!"
 

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