Game News Colony Ship Update #36: Combat Demo Update #3 - Yet More New Screenshots

[Infinitron]

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

It looks like we're going to have wait at least one more month for the Colony Ship combat demo. This month's development update goes into more detail about the issues holding it up. The biggest issue is armor, which has suffered due to the hospitalization of Iron Tower's animator. The portraits are also taking a long time to finalize, so the demo will initially be released with placeholders. You can see some of those in the update's accompanying screenshots, which also feature a short-lived new hireling by the name of Mason.

Random tidbits from the front:

1) Programming: We're feature-complete for the demo as of 2 weeks ago. In plain English it means that all the systems (character, inventory, combat, gadgets, dialogue, trading, etc) are done and working well other than the stealth system which we won't need for the demo). Right now we're bug-fixing and tweaking things. For example, what happens when a bullet misses the target by an inch (you see the bullets flying) but hits the energy shield? It's a minor thing but there are lots of them. Enemy's shields didn't shut down when they were killed, fixed it too. Things like that.

2) Art assets:

- armor is still about 30% done, which is our biggest workflow problem to-date. Ivan, our animator who also handles armor, got very ill and spent the last 10 days in a hospital. He's recovering now. We hope to finish armor needed for the demo by the end of the month. By armor I mean all wearable items: vests, jacket/coats, helmets, boots, goggles, masks, breathers. At 8-12 items per category that's quite a lot, but once it's done we won't have to worry about it and would be able to focus on building content.

- portraits: we're making progress, but still behind; we'll probably need 8-10 weeks to finish all portraits needed for the demo but we can start earlier with some placeholders.

- animations: probably 2-3 weeks of work, minor tweaks as we have all animations already. It's not just the animations but setting up the blueprints (Unreal 4 thing) and fixing problems like a character in cover standing up to fire a one-handed SMG even though we have a proper animation for that. Etc.

- the gadgets and the gadget parts are done (3D models and icons), still need to do the implants but won't need any for the demo

3) Design & Balance

- since we keep playing the demo daily ironman style, the balance gets better and better (meaning dying gets easier and easier but good tactics can still save the day).
- all dialogues and ending were done (written and scripted) a long time ago; the demo is playable from start to finish.
- we still need to set the prices for the store and write most item descriptions.

4) Interface
Everything is functional but that's about it. We have a lot of (necessary) changes planned already, but we can do during the beta test as so far it's a low priority item.
​

See the full update for more screenshots and images including descriptions. Hopefully this will be the last update before the demo is released.

 

[Gwendo]

I hope they take in consideration, when tweaking the difficulty, that most people won’t start with all those hours replaying the game nor will they invest as many hours playing it. Make it too difficult and only manageable to those who play dozens of hours and they’ll alienate most people but the hardcore ones.

 

[Kaivokz]

Looking good.

 

[Diggfinger]

Wow crazy how they change the art-style every 5 minutes, I mean I backed the Kickstarter wanting Deux Ex with PS1 graphics and now they change the visuals more rapidly than I can change my underwear!!!

Oh, sorry. Wrong game

 

[Lord Commissar Alexer]

Cool.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

I hope they take in consideration, when tweaking the difficulty, that most people won’t start with all those hours replaying the game nor will they invest as many hours playing it. Make it too difficult and only manageable to those who play dozens of hours and they’ll alienate most people but the hardcore ones.

This. They made this mistake with Dungeon Rats. They rebalanced the whole game before release because Goral thought it was too easy. This was a stupid move because he spent hundreds of hours playing Age of Decadence and knew the combat system inside out.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I hope they take in consideration, when tweaking the difficulty, that most people won’t start with all those hours replaying the game nor will they invest as many hours playing it. Make it too difficult and only manageable to those who play dozens of hours and they’ll alienate most people but the hardcore ones.

Make it too easy and ... why would anyone want to play an easy game? The very appeal of TB combat is figuring out how to overcome the odds stacked against you. Our target audience are people who like TB combat and not only don't mind but even willing and possibly even eager to invest many hours playing it.

I hope they take in consideration, when tweaking the difficulty, that most people won’t start with all those hours replaying the game nor will they invest as many hours playing it. Make it too difficult and only manageable to those who play dozens of hours and they’ll alienate most people but the hardcore ones.

This. They made this mistake with Dungeon Rats. They rebalanced the whole game before release because Goral thought it was too easy. This was a stupid move because he spent hundreds of hours playing Age of Decadence and knew the combat system inside out.

There were 3 (three! not one, not two, but THREE!!!) difficulty modes. Yes, we made the hardest difficulty mode appropriately hard based on the feedback of the most experienced players, which is how it fucking should be because the goal of the hard mode is to offer challenge to experienced players. Sadly, some players felt that they too deserve to beat the game on the hard mode and that it was 'humiliating' (direct quote) for a man with 300 hours in Skyrim to play on easy.

 

[Trashos]

There are indeed people who feel insulted when they can't beat the game on hardest difficulty, but fortunately they can be safely ignored. There are several successful franchises with exceptionally tough hardest difficulties (eg, Civilization, NBA 2k), and their fanbase just take it for granted that they won't be playing on hardest difficulty. It seems to me that it is only the RPG genre that feels pressure to make the game easy on all difficulty levels.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

There are indeed people who feel insulted when they can't beat the game on hardest difficulty, but fortunately they can be safely ignored.

I can beat the game on the hardest difficulty. It's not about me, it's about other players expectations.

 

[Trashos]

I know.

 

[Vault Dweller]

There are indeed people who feel insulted when they can't beat the game on hardest difficulty, but fortunately they can be safely ignored.

I can beat the game on the hardest difficulty. It's not about me, it's about other players expectations.

Should we follow the industry's trend then and make hard easy (or at least easier) because that's what some players expect?

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Should we follow the industry's trend then and make hard easy (or at least easier) because that's what some players expect?

No, but you shouldn’t overcompensate by balancing the hardest difficult on ultra-fans of the game.

 

[Tigranes]

The hardest difficulty should be balanced for ultra-fans of the game/genre.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Should we follow the industry's trend then and make hard easy (or at least easier) because that's what some players expect?

No, but you shouldn’t overcompensate by balancing the hardest difficult on ultra-fans of the game.

Why not? We could add another ultra-hard difficulty but that's just silly. If one's playing on hard, one shouldn't complain that the game is too hard. Am I missing something?

 

[Goral]

Am I missing something?

"See, I told you I was a four".

Lurker wants you to appeal to people who aren't honest to themselves and think that if they've beaten Skyrim on hardest difficulty they can do the same with your little game. I for one am glad that you don't use gimmicks like these (or input romances or some other shit).

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

I want to appeal to fans of the genre that don’t have hundreds of hours in your previous games.

 

[Tigranes]

They can play on Normal. You're repeating the exact argument that led to every RPG out there being beatable by a piece of rock tied to the left click button.

The easiest trick is just to call Normal "Hard" and call Hard-for-RPG-veterans "Super Fucking Sadistic Ultra". Makes it easier for the retards to say "oh fuck im not playing sadistic mode that's just crazy talk, i feel plenty good playing on HARD!" Didn't TW3 do this?

 

[Jaedar]

They can play on Normal. You're repeating the exact argument that led to every RPG out there being beatable by a piece of rock tied to the left click button.

The easiest trick is just to call Normal "Hard" and call Hard-for-RPG-veterans "Super Fucking Sadistic Ultra". Makes it easier for the retards to say "oh fuck im not playing sadistic mode that's just crazy talk, i feel plenty good playing on HARD!" Didn't TW3 do this?

There is a cost to this though, in that it means players who aren't introspectively challenged have no idea what difficulty to pick. Does normal actually mean normal, or is it renamed easy mode? HF discovering after 20 hours that you picked the wrong one because the description was unclear.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

The hardest difficulty should be balanced for ultra-fans of the game/genre.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

YOU ARE ALL WRONG

FIGHT ME!

 

[Ismaul]

The easiest trick is just to call Normal "Hard"

I was writing just that before I saw your post. Renaming the difficulties to something like "Hard" (easy), "Harder" (normal), and "Hardest" (actual hard) would allow people to choose the easiest difficulty and still feel like they have a big dick playing on hard. But like Jaedar said, you still need to communicate clearly the meaning of difficulties so that someone that wants a real challenge doesn't just choose "Hard" aka Easy.

So it's more of a dilemma: do you name your difficulties to stroke the ego of casuals / newcomers, or relative to an experienced player's level? Maybe the answer here depends on who's your audience. But even if you say it's hardcore players, you still want to attract less experienced newcomers to build that audience, so it's not that simple.

The problem is, I think next to nobody reads difficulty descriptions (I do though). It's a thing you click through fast like the EULA just to get to actually playing. So no matter how you word the difficulties some players are going to be unintentionally misled. Newcomers think they're better than they are, Hardcore players just assume that even the hardest difficulty will be easy these days, while some other hardcore players are wary of high difficulties that just bloat the numbers and make the game a grind, etc.

Plus the baseline on which the devs build the other difficulties (aka the "normal" difficulty) varies in difficulty from dev to dev. There's no objective standard, and there can't be. So that choice is not obvious at all, from both the dev's and the player's points of view. It's hard to judge the difficulty of a game based on the difficulty names, and sometimes even the descriptions. In some cases you got to play a bit to get a feel. Anyways, at the very least, being able to change difficulty during play will help there.

 

[HoboForEternity]

make it like dungeon rats. murderous psychopath as age of decadence level. normal is easy and easy is babby

 

[Bricker]

It looks great!

 

[Trashos]

Difficulty Level 1- If you haven't played our previous games, start here.
Difficulty Level 2- If this is your first time playing Colony Ship, but you are experienced with our previous games, start here. You will probably want to stay here as well. Expect a serious challenge.
Difficulty Level 3- Just follow me into this alley. BWAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAAHAA! Ahem.

 

[Dr Schultz]

The easiest trick is just to call Normal "Hard"

I was writing just that before I saw your post. Renaming the difficulties to something like "Hard" (easy), "Harder" (normal), and "Hardest" (actual hard) would allow people to choose the easiest difficulty and still feel like they have a big dick playing on hard. But like Jaedar said, you still need to communicate clearly the meaning of difficulties so that someone that wants a real challenge doesn't just choose "Hard" aka Easy.

So it's more of a dilemma: do you name your difficulties to stroke the ego of casuals / newcomers, or relative to an experienced player's level? Maybe the answer here depends on who's your audience. But even if you say it's hardcore players, you still want to attract less experienced newcomers to build that audience, so it's not that simple.

The problem is, I think next to nobody reads difficulty descriptions (I do though). It's a thing you click through fast like the EULA just to get to actually playing. So no matter how you word the difficulties some players are going to be unintentionally misled. Newcomers think they're better than they are, Hardcore players just assume that even the hardest difficulty will be easy these days, while some other hardcore players are wary of high difficulties that just bloat the numbers and make the game a grind, etc.

Plus the baseline on which the devs build the other difficulties (aka the "normal" difficulty) varies in difficulty from dev to dev. There's no objective standard, and there can't be. So that choice is not obvious at all, from both the dev's and the player's points of view. It's hard to judge the difficulty of a game based on the difficulty names, and sometimes even the descriptions. In some cases you got to play a bit to get a feel. Anyways, at the very least, being able to change difficulty during play will help there.

Truth be told: I don't think that an RPG developer should EVER try to add more than a difficulty level to his game.
Given the enourmous amout of variables that they have to keep in check within a single difficulty level, they already have a hard time trying not to present players with a reversed difficulty curve. We all know that they keep failing at that since forever, but we keep playing games where the real challange is at the beginning and the end game is a cakewalk because we almost expect an RPG to be like that. Trying to avoid this issue with 3, 5 or even more difficulty levels is basically ludicrous.

Now, it could sound like a provocation, but I honestly think that RPG developers should learn from Super Mario Bross how to handle difficulty. No one has ever done a better job with that in the industry.