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

[agris]

The monk class should be excised from RPGs.

Everyone hates on monks until they dip 1 level for the passives.

3e sucks, get that garbage out of an ITS game thread

 

[Marat]

The music maker

I do believe the term you're looking for is "composer".

 

[Pink Eye]

What's everyone's thoughts about the new implant system:

Here is how the system works now:

- Base implant: the implant you know and love.
- Overclock: Pay Eli to overclock them and double their effect.
- Upgrades modules: You can find chips with minor bonuses and install them on the implants.
- Specializations: Each implant will have two very powerful options (mutually exclusive). You will find specialization tokens, which are very rare, about 3 or 4 in the whole game, which can unlock any of the 14 options.

Once we finalize the design of the options, we'll place the tokens. You would be able to get the first one in the Habitat.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/648410/discussions/0/3314107199323077864/#c331410776568994527

I myself think it's pretty good overall, you get minor bonuses which you find from exploration or questing, then overclocking then the actual specializations themselves; which will be rare but will have huge effects. The other neat thing is that the upgrade modules with their minor effects won't lock you out of specializations. Basically what the devs are proposing is far more interesting to me. Of course, I hope enemies take advantage of the system too. Would like some exciting challenging encounters based around these implants.

 

[lukaszek]

how many implants do I need to become one with the ship?

 

[Faarbaute]

Is Colony Ship final, or just the working title for the game?

 

[Pink Eye]

Is Colony Ship final, or just the working title for the game?

Why? Do you not like the name?

 

[Faarbaute]

Is Colony Ship final, or just the working title for the game?

Why? Do you not like the name?

Nah, just wondering. I randomly recalled the devs asking for advice to help come up with a title for the game and I was curious if anything came out of it and if this was it.

 

[Marat]

They decided on "The New World", but it was copyrighted so they reverted to the working title.

 

[Pink Eye]

Yeah they did a vote and that's what they settled on. Here's the polls they did:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7609.0.html
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7610.0.html

 

[Faarbaute]

Yeah they did a vote and that's what they settled on. Here's the polls they did:
https://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7609.0.html
https://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7610.0.html

These links cause my browser to shit itself, btw.

 

[Pink Eye]

That made me laugh uncontrollably. Thanks for the laughs!

 

[Sratopotator]

Remove "s" from "https" and you're golden. Seems like the ITS homepage's security certificate went to the shitter.
Btw, I'm still amazed that the codex finally made the transition to https standard a while back.
EDIT: Oh, codex's certificate expires this month, hopefully someone remembers to click a few buttons

 

[Pink Eye]

Check out this picture of the visuals which are being tweaked for Habitat:

 

[MF]

Looks awesome, I like the Cathedral of Light reference.

I'm having an increasingly hard time imagining where the hull is or what serves as bulkheads on this ship though. The vast negative space seems strange.

 

[Kainan]

I found this review on Steam, what do you guys think of these criticisms:

"Colony ship is a disappointment for me, coming from an exceptional RPG like Age of Decadence I expected something similarly polished and high-quality from Iron Tower.

The writing is still good, evocative and interesting but logically inconsistent. The ship is crumbling into a metallic coffin for all those aboard and few people seem to care. Critical systems are going to fail in the next few decades and the most powerful factions are instead fighting for sections of maintenance tunnels and walkways. It all feels very stranded, as if every character in an area has no interest or connection to other areas of the ship.

The level design is.. a mixed bag, there are quite a few skill checks for exploration that reward the player for having specialized stats or party members but there are almost no interactions for combat that can help you level the playing field. More on combat later. The idea of a ship traveling at relativistic speeds towards a possibly habitable planet is interesting and carries along with it certain expectations. For example: free space, it makes sense to have free space in a cargo hold, probably in an entertainment district. Yet free, empty space - which is supposed to be at a premium on any ship, naval or space-faring - is present in almost every area of the ship. Hydroponics, maintenance tunnels, the ships life support system, The Habitat which sprawls above a massive empty chamber in the center of the ship. It doesn't feel like the close confines of a ship, more like some massive cyberpunk hive city.

And then there's the combat.
Combat is cruel, there's really no other way to put it, you will routinely be placed into awful tactical situations where you are outnumbered, outgunned, and acting last despite having the max amount of dexterity unless you've also sunk a point into the initiative perk. Effective weapons and armor are kind of a joke, you might get some decent gear that will help you avoid getting one shot but you're still going down in two or three turns even with the best equipment you can get. It's worse for companions who get zeroed in on by the enemy AI so it's a constant struggle to try and keep them alive because you're completely screwed both in combat and out if they die.

Age of Decadence could be cruel but it was not cruel by default. Most of the fights could be leveraged through skill checks to your favor, most of the fights could be beaten by a well designed combat character. You could craft exceptional weapons and armor, potions and oils, or just use knives, spears and nets. It encouraged players to dive into the combat system and find a build that worked for them.

Where is any of that in Colony Ship? Where is that when you're constantly being placed in the middle of corridors or rooms with no cover and against grenade happy 85 initiative soldiers? Where is that when every skill is a painful slow crawl towards competency? Where is the depth when energy weapons and pulse grenades which are supposed to be exotic powerful weapons especially effective against robots and cyborgs do less or equal damage to those enemies? It feels like everyone except you in this game is some kind of government supersoldier in disguise and every victory against these goons is hollow because a cloning factory is printing these guys out like a broken copy machine that has a personal vendetta against you - the player.

I'm not even going to talk about the stealth. It's a complete joke.

There is a difficulty setting that they added after months of being pestered about it yet the problem is a failure of game design that isn't alleviated by simply making enemies worse and player characters slightly better.

This is not the RPG sequel to Age of Decadence. I don't know what this is. It's not fun."


I had a feeling it would be a kind of ilogical world. AoD was really good otoh but i would buy this still if there is a chance of AoD2.

 

[Pink Eye]

Looks awesome, I like the Cathedral of Light reference.

Elhoim Has been doing phenomenal work with what little he has!

The writing is still good, evocative and interesting but logically inconsistent. The ship is crumbling into a metallic coffin for all those aboard and few people seem to care. Critical systems are going to fail in the next few decades and the most powerful factions are instead fighting for sections of maintenance tunnels and walkways. It all feels very stranded, as if every character in an area has no interest or connection to other areas of the ship.

I guess we'll first have to ask what piece of the story does he find inconsistent? What does the story mess up on? What needs to be explained? Then we can go from there, otherwise it's hard to address this particular piece of criticism. However, to give you a broad overview of the story. A while ago there were these dedicated people that wanted to get away from earth in order to find new land. Doesn't really matter why. Maybe there was a zombie apocalypse. Maybe humanity imploded all at once. Again the circumstances which lead to this group leaving earth isn't important. What's important is that a contingent of humanity went on this century-spanning long voyage; guaranteeing future generations to be shackled to the Mission as well. Both of which never to see earth, neither this promised land, and forever to live and die on the ship - ship born as they call it. Some generations later. Other folk didn't share that same fervor of sacrifice. Thus people rebelled, a civil war ensued, people died, ya da da.

Now I suppose what you can call "logically-inconsistent" is why the mutiny happened. Everyone has their own opinion on it. Brotherhood will give you their own version of events. A local citizen will give you his. Protectors will give you theirs. All of which probably contradicts with each other. Yet, that's the point. You have to piece the truth yourself in order to understand the whys and hows. My perspective, old authority was too authoritative: Tyranny at its most simplest form. Mutiny happened because old authority made people's lives way too hard.

Critical systems are going to fail in the next few decades

Regarding this. Game doesn't really explicitly specify the ship born have "decades". It's very vague on this. All we do know is that ship was damaged in some parts during civil war. Some systems are in disrepair; and that scavengers are looting components.

powerful factions are instead fighting for sections of maintenance tunnels and walkways.

Right. To go back to my summary from up above. Mutiny happens. Factions break off. Each having their own ideology as a result of this major event. What's generally accepted among these factions is that: they don't want another mutiny on their hands. However, as I mentioned earlier, everyone has their own interpretation on the whys and hows of which caused the mutiny, therein lies the conflict. Brotherhood believes in freedom from old ways. Protectors believe in old ways. Both of which see each other as a threat, thus fighting ensues. Church is caught somewhere in the middle; it's the most interesting faction to me because originally they didn't participate in the bloodshed. However when gun fire starts and bodies drop. You realize that sermons and prayers isn't going to be enough, and thus the faction had to adapt.

As to why skirmishes are being caused over random "tunnels and walkways"; well, that's war. Enemy wants x, you don't want them to take x, so you fight them over it. War is messy.

character in an area has no interest or connection to other areas of the ship.

Not sure what this is implying since characters do talk about other areas. Everyone and their mother talks about the Habitat. It's just that people who aren't involved in the feud with Brotherhood v Protector are focused on other things; such as survival.

almost no interactions for combat that can help you level the playing field.

This is false. Couple of examples from memory. During a quest to evict a group of squatters from a tower. You can sneak to side, use electronics to open door, then sabotage a certain machine in order to "force" said squatters out. During another quest to assassinate a right hand man of Jonas. You can enter his place from roof. Sneak inside. Then kill them off one by one without much trouble. Lastly, there are two quests within Habitat that give you loads of options. One is about investigating an N-tab illegal seller. If you have the right skills. You can sneak. Sabtaoge air condition with poison. Then start fight with them at low HP and low initiative. Another quest is about rooting out a troublemaker that threatens "social cohesion" of Brotherhood district. Again if you have the skills. You can hack a turret and have it kill the agitators. Lots of options in completing quests.

Moving to the most important bit: Combat. You either hate it or love it. Seems there's no inbetween. No point in discussing it since I believe it's fine. If you need help though. Do be free to ask for it. I do find it cute how combat in Colony Ship is constantly compared to Age of Decadence. Even though it's basically the same system.

Anyways to close off with. Colony Ship isn't interested in answering the question of whether or not interstellar travel is possible or even feasible. Or technicalities of the ship, and so on. It focuses on man. Man's struggle against himself. Man's fight for survival. The different factions, their ideologies, their history. Inter-faction fighting. This is what Iron Tower excels at. These are the kinds of stories it wants to tell. If humanity was forced to live in an isolated box cut off from greater society, what would it look like? How would its society evolve? Its ideals. Its way of living. Its governance over each other. Maybe the authors are a bit too cynical and pessimistic in portraying this. Yet, to me, it's entertaining and fun to read about this messed up society.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

what do you guys think

exceptional RPG like Age of Decadence

also his comment about free space in a spaceship isn't correct, it doesn't have to be a premium if it was constructed in space to begin with.

 

[MF]

also his comment about free space in a spaceship isn't correct, it doesn't have to be a premium if it was constructed in space to begin with.

Of course it does. It's a vehicle. Air has mass. Moving that mass takes energy.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

also his comment about free space in a spaceship isn't correct, it doesn't have to be a premium if it was constructed in space to begin with.

Of course it does. It's a vehicle. Air has mass. Moving that mass takes energy.

depressurize and slowly pressurize after the journey has begun, the difference will be negligible due to the lack of friction in space

also, there's not much reason to have areas not designated for living to actually be pressurized.

 

[MF]

also his comment about free space in a spaceship isn't correct, it doesn't have to be a premium if it was constructed in space to begin with.

Of course it does. It's a vehicle. Air has mass. Moving that mass takes energy.

depressurize and slowly pressurize after the journey has begun, the difference will be negligible due to the lack of friction in space

also, there's not much reason to have areas not designated for living to actually be pressurized.

Pressurize with what? You can't add mass along the way, you're travelling through a vacuum. Compressed or not, you'd have to be hauling it with you when the journey starts.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

also his comment about free space in a spaceship isn't correct, it doesn't have to be a premium if it was constructed in space to begin with.

Of course it does. It's a vehicle. Air has mass. Moving that mass takes energy.

depressurize and slowly pressurize after the journey has begun, the difference will be negligible due to the lack of friction in space

also, there's not much reason to have areas not designated for living to actually be pressurized.

Pressurize with what? You can't add mass along the way, you're travelling through a vacuum. Compressed or not, you'd have to be hauling it with you when the journey starts.

The right to own algae is the right to be free.
Also, the quibbling about air is ridiculous when they have megabuildings on board.

and yes, they can add mass along the way. There's plenty of things in space they could harvest.

 

[Parabalus]

This is false. Couple of examples from memory. During a quest to evict a group of squatters from a tower. You can sneak to side, use electronics to open door, then sabotage a certain machine in order to "force" said squatters out. During another quest to assassinate a right hand man of Jonas. You can enter his place from roof. Sneak inside. Then kill them off one by one without much trouble. Lastly, there are two quests within Habitat that give you loads of options. One is about investigating an N-tab illegal seller. If you have the right skills. You can sneak. Sabtaoge air condition with poison. Then start fight with them at low HP and low initiative. Another quest is about rooting out a troublemaker that threatens "social cohesion" of Brotherhood district. Again if you have the skills. You can hack a turret and have it kill the agitators. Lots of options in completing quests.

This isn't it, different paths to complete quests is a different thing from influencing combat, so only sabotaging the air condition counts.

Sneaking for a better starting position for combat happens a few times, but it's mostly vs random mobs.

 

[Vault Dweller]

...I expected something similarly polished...

The game is still in development, at this stage our focus is on adding locations and quests (the main building blocks), not on polishing.

The writing is still good, evocative and interesting but logically inconsistent. The ship is crumbling into a metallic coffin for all those aboard and few people seem to care. Critical systems are going to fail in the next few decades and the most powerful factions are instead fighting for sections of maintenance tunnels and walkways. It all feels very stranded, as if every character in an area has no interest or connection to other areas of the ship.

The critical systems may or may not fail in the next few decades. The situation IS deteriorating but it's been deteriorating since the mutiny. If you need an analogy, see global warming.

The level design is.. a mixed bag, there are quite a few skill checks for exploration that reward the player for having specialized stats or party members but there are almost no interactions for combat that can help you level the playing field.

Incorrect.

Yet free, empty space - which is supposed to be at a premium on any ship, naval or space-faring - is present in almost every area of the ship. Hydroponics, maintenance tunnels, the ships life support system, The Habitat which sprawls above a massive empty chamber in the center of the ship. It doesn't feel like the close confines of a ship, more like some massive cyberpunk hive city.

It's a repurposed ore hauler (cargo ship) not a state-of-the-art colony ship designed for this very purpose. The Habitat, the factory, hydrpopnics, etc are sitting in what used to be giant cargo holds. Cheaper to use the existing vertical space than to rebuild the ship completely, not to mention that without that vertical space people would start going bonkers in 6-12 months.

Combat is cruel, there's really no other way to put it, you will routinely be placed into awful tactical situations where you are outnumbered, outgunned, and acting last despite having the max amount of dexterity unless you've also sunk a point into the initiative perk. Effective weapons and armor are kind of a joke, you might get some decent gear that will help you avoid getting one shot but you're still going down in two or three turns even with the best equipment you can get. It's worse for companions who get zeroed in on by the enemy AI so it's a constant struggle to try and keep them alive because you're completely screwed both in combat and out if they die.

Age of Decadence could be cruel but it was not cruel by default. Most of the fights could be leveraged through skill checks to your favor, most of the fights could be beaten by a well designed combat character. You could craft exceptional weapons and armor, potions and oils, or just use knives, spears and nets. It encouraged players to dive into the combat system and find a build that worked for them.

See the player-submitted builds thread. A well designed combat character, party or solo, can beat every single fight in the game.

 

[Pink Eye]

only sabotaging the air condition counts.

Augh. Fine. Your pulling hairs here, but, in a quest to kill some badies at maintenance incursion for Protectors you can use a machine to inflict initiative penalty on Brotherhood enemies in order to get an upper-hand advantage. Oh yeah. I forgot the easy one. When you first start game there's two thugs outside your apartment. If you have good critical skill you can kill one of them to turn the fight into a 1v1 instead of a 2v1. Also when you do Evan's first quest. There's a dialogue you can choose to have initiative bonus giving you and Evans first turn for free. Lastly, if I remember, besides sneaking to kill Jonas right hand man, you can also use speech to turn his allies against him.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

only sabotaging the air condition counts.

Augh. Fine. Your pulling hairs here, but, in a quest to kill some badies at maintenance incursion for Protectors you can use a machine to inflict initiative penalty on Brotherhood enemies in order to get an upper-hand advantage. Oh yeah. I forgot the easy one. When you first start game there's two thugs outside your apartment. If you have good critical skill you can kill one of them to turn the fight into a 1v1 instead of a 2v1. Also when you do Evan's first quest. There's a dialogue you can choose to have initiative bonus giving you and Evans first turn for free. Lastly, if I remember, besides sneaking to kill Jonas right hand man, you can also use speech to turn his allies against him.

can I pick the parley option?