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

[nimateb]

Didn't read the thread but came here to say playing a combat build with no option to speed up the combat is not fun. I guess its coming on future patch

 

[Savecummer]

This should be used when you enter the Armory and get the stale dialogue displayed before you click 'explore'
Same for hydro and pit since you have the concept art...

4. Skills & Learn by Using
You will not gain XP for killing, talking, sneaking, picking locks, using computers, fixing mechanical things and such. You will not increase your skills manually. Instead your skills will be increased automatically based on their use.

• The main problem with a party-based, skill-based setup is that even with a 3-man party you can easily cover all skills you want to have. You’ll have a fighter/talker, fighter/thief, fighter/fixer, which is something we’d like to avoid. The ‘increase by use’ system solves this problem in the most natural and logical way possible. Your abilities reflect what you do, not how (usually arbitrary) you distribute your skill points.

sOlVeD

 

[lukaszek]

my sneak + sciencie character, quite enjoyable. Those speech checks were raised from failures, might want to try some other non combar character with skills more spread thin.
Lockpick didnt receive upgrade at start but was tagged. The way I saw, sneaky character wouldnt be able to go for it by removing tag too. No idea if skill upgrade without tag is viable.
Steal had no upgrade nor tag, completed every check.
Sneak had both tag and upgrade, will probably try next without upgrade. Dex is quite important as without it you wont move far enough early on
computer had both tag and upgrade. Im interested in trying to go for it without upgrade next time(use token).
Electronics had both upgrade and tag. Upgrade is important as otherwise you wont lvl it up at all. I will try to drop tag next time.
Biotech came for free, failed nothing.
CS received quite a boost from token in the end, otherwise im not sure id reach lvl 4. Raising this skill is riddiculous. I am not sure if assassin and talker can be paired at all but will try. With how hard it is to raise it, tag might not be needed.
Traits are cool, feats are lackluster. This character had nothing to grab, hence unspent point.


btw, does int xp bonus count for lvling up or skills too?

 

[Jaedar]

btw, does int xp bonus count for lvling up or skills too?

Pretty sure the int xp is just for character xp, not skill xp. The big payoff for int is the mastermind perk for sure, +50% learning rate is really good for creating a jack of all trades. I'm quite surprised you managed to get 17 stealth reputation. Do you get massive stealth rep payoffs if you backstab everyone or what?

 

[lukaszek]

I'm quite surprised you managed to get 17 stealth reputation. Do you get massive stealth rep payoffs if you backstab everyone or what?

Maybe? When I go braxton route I actually reach 20 stealth rep.
Just did a quick check: going in and silently killing all 3 enemies(kill samuel quest) rewards 3 rep. Calculation might not be that easy though. You get 1 rep for entering sneak mode, 2 after sneak mode ends and all 3 are dead. How its really calculated - no idea.
Also there is no notion of body count - only combat which isnt raised during takedowns. I havent seen single time my stealth reputation came into picture. 20 is still shoplifter title.
I went out of my way to amass as many takedowns as possible, probably all there are to be gained, maybe more since that shield device thing is likely a bug, not a feature(ive gotten 2 kills that way).
As such Id say that critical strike at 5 is ridiculously low. If not for token bonus, it wouldnt surprise me if it didnt reach 4th level. Btw it could be higher than this 6 that im having - could go hard on dagger swings to lvl it up this way, also one of armory tokens offer CS afaik. No idea how much though.

Pretty sure the int xp is just for character xp, not skill xp. The big payoff for int is the mastermind perk for sure, +50% learning rate is really good for creating a jack of all trades.

thats how i understood it too but wanted to be sure. After all you can raise int to 11...

so... what are actual benefits of leveling up? Feat point from time to time? I do hope we get something more interesting then...

 

[Vault Dweller]

A feat point every time you level up, more with Mastermind.

 

[Efe]

who else can I recruit besides the first guy?
having a hard time alone

 

[Vault Dweller]

who else can I recruit besides the first guy?
having a hard time alone

Jed - talk to Whiskey Jack to start the quest. Faythe - talk to Earl and do his first quest, he will send you to Faythe right after.

 

[Pink Eye]

who else can I recruit besides the first guy?
having a hard time alone

Go to the Earl's Office - it's at Camptown. Speak to him. He'll give you a couple of quests. One is with Chance. The other, and last, quest will give you access to Faythe - she's a companion. Speak to Jack at Whiskey Jack. He'lll want you hunt down Jed. Jed is hanging somewhere in Drain at Camptown. Don't kill him. Hear him out. He'll offer a quest. Do it. And you'll get another companion. In total, there are three companions.

 

[Savecummer]

Is Pistoleros reaction bonus working?

 

[Vault Dweller]

As far as I know. The reaction bonus there is for all weapons, whereas Pistolero grants it to pistols only.

 

[Savecummer]

Yeah, it works. Its displayed in the Invenory screen.
lukaszek its a cheatengine char, I needed that to get the xp thresholds quickly.

 

[LudensCogitet]

So I picked rifle as my weapon skill, but it seems like all of the fights (at least early on, I haven't gotten far) are in very close quarters and / or involve melee opponents that gang up quickly.

Anyone else try a rifle build and find a way to make it work?

 

[Nm6k]

I did though I haven't beat the whole chapter yet

 

[Nm6k]

 

[Takamori]

After overdosing on Battle Brothers, to avoid burn out decided to buy and play. So far nothing new that has been mentioned here yet regarding bugs, balance and story.
Having a blast but I remember we spoke back when the demo released regarding death animation and you said that you were looking to improve then, are they still on the plans? Or sadly due to budget and time constraints they were a casuality from the to do list?
I would love to have death animation based on the aimed shot for example, blood decals , stuff that tell an after story of what happened during combat, that sort of stuff improves the player experience IMO. Call me a grafix whore if must but this sort of visual feedback improve the RPG feel depending if you want to give a more dark tone. And the OST and the sort of hopeless feel and people trying to make through in the Colony Ship sure give a more in the downs feel.

 

[TheSoul]

Few questions about EA so far

1.) I'm healing after every battle, is that changed from AOD or is it a bug?

2.) Are there stats checks? I've only been seeing skill checks so far (just visited hydroponics).

3.) Is tagging speech skills for companions used or is it a trap?

4.) Is it planned to include status effects in the turn order? It was in Dungeon Rats and I thought it helped.

 

[Twiglard]

I'm healing after every battle, is that changed from AOD or is it a bug?

This only happens for me when I'm in the Armory or other dungeon section. When in town, I have to heal manually.

Are there stats checks? I've only been seeing skill checks so far (just visited hydroponics).

Yeah, at least Charisma checks.

 

[Luckmann]

There's no way to give companions implants in the game yet, is there?

 

[Daedalos]

So hows the initial haul been in terms of cash influx for the EA, Vault Dweller ?

Things looking good?

 

[jackofshadows]

So I picked rifle as my weapon skill, but it seems like all of the fights (at least early on, I haven't gotten far) are in very close quarters and / or involve melee opponents that gang up quickly.

Anyone else try a rifle build and find a way to make it work?

You can
a) re-start with dex heroic feat
b) simply endure any possible AoO and move before shooting thouse who came close to you
c) depelop any other second weapon skill just for these occasions.
I used two of these options for my first run just to be safe but that's kinda overkill.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Just finished with my submachine gun combat build: 4-8-8-8-8-6 at character creation (I love Gifted, but maybe it’s too overpowered), 5-8-9-9-9-6 (with squad leader implant) in the end. Sided with Jonas, couldn’t talk Mercy around so wiped out her whole crew and Braxton’s.

Feels like I could’ve easily moved a couple points into CHA and tagged streetwise and/or persuasion for an extremely viable hybrid build. I used maybe three flashbangs and a couple stasis grenades with my pure combat build, so there were tons of useful consumables left over; not like AoD where every net, bola or bomb was precious.

Gonna try again with a pure talker. Has anyone found any cool ways to resolve quests for high INT/CHA builds, like in AoD when you could convince the bandits to attack the Aurelian Outpost?

As much as I loved my playthrough, I worry that Colony Ship’s not frontloading its best qualities. I’m sure it was a huge pain in the ass to have six main quests in AoD right from the get-go, with lots of branching paths just through Teron, but at least that meant early access players got a real taste of one of the game’s biggest selling points. Then again, we also had to wait a decade to play it, so maybe streamlining the very beginning was the right call.

 

[Alphons]

1.) I'm healing after every battle, is that changed from AOD or is it a bug?

Placeholder for first aid kits (food from DR). Their effectiveness will be tied to Biotech skill.

2.) Are there stats checks? I've only been seeing skill checks so far (just visited hydroponics).

There're a few. Intelligence during your first conversation with Braxton, Strength and Dexterity in Hydroponics, Strength and Dexterity in Armory.

 

[lukaszek]

i did skill monkey run after all. Plan was to recruit crowd and for my character to pass every single check thrown at me. It worked

as you can see my character was always the one taking the beating in fights, running away and just trying to survive.
Looking at those stats... you can do better and create ultra skill monkey/slight combat hybrid. At least as far as demo early access is concerned.

Started with sneak not tagged and no points awarded at chargen. Tagged at lvl2 without issues since sneak is used later on.
Started with 1 point in CS. Wasnt able to takedown samuel(maybe i did something wrong in here). If I went after mercy, could raise CS to lvl 4 easilly. But then I chose to be a talker in that one.
Persuasion and streetwise both had tag and starting point. Might be doable to do this without tags
Computers had tag and no starting point. I do wonder what would happen if I went without tag.
1 point in electronics to do anything
Lockpick had a tag without starting point... I wonder if tag is required

I will refrain myself from playing further as I want to sperg on release for my 'perfect theron' run.

As for master trader, ive picked it very late and couldnt find any 'unique deals'. For sure it doesnt mean cool stuff in merchants stock

Gonna try again with a pure talker. Has anyone found any cool ways to resolve quests for high INT/CHA builds, like in AoD when you could convince the bandits to attack the Aurelian Outpost?

there is only one and its sneak + electronics

Spoiler

clear tower in hydro location by turning frogs hostile on bandits

Intelligence during your first conversation with Braxton

only if you resolve it peacefully

EDIT: Id suggest to bring back bodycount from AoD instead of combat rep. This way sneak archers can intimidate people too

 

[Luckmann]

Well, I decided to go against my usual principle of not playing beta releases on account of how promising the game looked, and the testing just came to an end as I hit a showstopper bug - after siding with Jonas I was told to stop some reinforcements, but to actually stop them you need Computer 3, which you cannot possibly get in the starting area, even tagged, it seems (I'm pretty sure that I had done everything outside of resolving the Braxton/Jonas conflict). This results in a fight that cannot be resolved because there's a closed vault door/bulkhead in the way, and you cannot leave the area, despite "leave the town to its fate" being an option.

Regardless, initial impressions are highly promising. Some less positive thoughts:

• The "journal" is ass. It reminds me of the journal of games that depend on a quest compass, except somehow worse. It gives no indication of why you're doing something, and nothing to contextualize it, so unless you have a very clear memory, you'll soon find yourself wondering why you're doing this or that, or what the logic behind the decision was. All it does is point you in a vague direction using names of things you may have completely forgotten about or may have slipped your mind when reading.
  
  
• The stealth system isn't great. Having it only kick in in limited scripted events/scenes also plays poorly with the skill system in the game, and incentivizes simply taking everyone with you anyway, since not doing so will deprive them of points, even if they do absolutely nothing during the stealth "scene". There's also poor feedback; I was "caught" several times but I still have absolutely no idea why that tile was a no-go zone (it wasn't red), and if I skipped turns using spacebar or q/e, combat started, but if I pressed "end turn" manually, it worked fine, yet it wasn't as if spacebar skipping entered combat, either, which turned out to be the best decision ever since it automatically put the active character to the top of the turn order, yet there seemed to be no benefit for the other members of the team, so no proper "ambush". I am not a big fan of the scripted-scenes-only deal going on here, but either way, feedback needs to be much improved.
  
  
• Poor party control. Having everyone cluster and follow you around as if tied by rubber bands is always horrible - but extremely common - in turn-based games. I constantly wish I was able to leave people in specific points, such as leaving a sniper far back, or to sneak around with someone capable of stealthing to set up an ambush, but never moreso than when interacting with the stealth system. If you don't take everyone with you into a Stealth scene, they are simply incapable of contributing meaningfully to any fight that breaks out, as they will be stuck over by the stealth-scene-point-of-entry, instead of where it would make sense for them to be.
  
  
• Little to no party input. Not just mechanically, but narratively, too. I think there was a *single* time when anyone in the party had anything to say, and that was Evans after I had taken a mission for the Church. Other than that, they were following me around like zombies on a rubber-band. The majority of skills seem useless for party members too, or even worse, meaningless for multiple party members to even have. For any check performed in dialogue, regardless of who initiates it, it doesn't seem to matter (although I could be wrong). This would mean that an Electronics check to get through a door works just fine for a party member, but fixing a panel on a computer as part of a "dialogue" won't work. If characters could be used to meaningfully interject by "allowing" them to butt in, that could go a long way to fix both of these issues, but I also know that the developers aren't a fan of the player essentially dictating (C)NPC action(s).

Aside from that and some specific narrative bugs/nonsensicals, though, I'm left with an extremely positive impression. The atmosphere is great, the setting is fairly novel, the game doesn't shy away from mechanical layering/derived stats, and there seems to be plenty of opportunity to expand upon all content I've seen so far, which is always promising.

Desperately looking forward to the finished/polished product.