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Colony Ship: First System Update

Elhoim

Iron Tower Studio
Developer
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
2,878
Location
San Isidro, Argentina
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/648410/view/3133940383036462090

First System Update

Welcome to the first system update. The game was released on Early Access in April and until now our focus was on new locations and content. After releasing the Shuttle Bay we took a 3-week 'break' and worked on nothing but the systems.

These changes and improvements reflect the feedback we received over the last 7 months and we'd like to thank everyone who posted suggestions, shared builds, and participated in discussions. That's what Early Access is all about.

Thematically we can split the changes into 7 categories:

Difficulty & Tutorial

Despite our best efforts to keep the difficulty manageable and engage players who struggle, some players find the game frustrating and unplayable rather than challenging. Needless to say, frustrating people was never our goal, so we added Easy difficulty mode and a tutorial explaining key concepts.

Coincidentally, now that we don't have to worry about first-time players, we can make the Hard difficulty a bit more challenging.

Feats & Derived Stats

Charisma now adds Neural Resistance (see Psi Overhaul below). We added 3 new feats (Master Trader, Frog Hunter, Slow Metabolism) and 3 new mutually exclusive mutation feats as quest rewards. Plus balance changes to the existing feats as suggested by the players.

Weapons & Armor

- Extensive balance changes, added new armguards and leg armor.

- We added Old (-1DR) and Damaged (-3DR) armor sets to boost variety on the visual side. Most enemies will be wearing old and damaged armor. New armor will be sold in stores. Unique (custom-made) – looted from notable enemies.

- New weapons: long requested laser cutter, two energy 'shotguns' (a close range energy gun, Earth-made and Ship-made) and 'SMG' (a rapid-fire energy gun), a Ship-made energy club, a clawhammer for the bashers, and a bunch of firearms: a revolver, shotguns, rifles, etc.

Combat & Stealth AI

Improved enemies behavior in combat and stealth: target and attack selection, grenade and stim use, reaction to sound and dead bodies, alert levels, etc.

PSI Overhaul

- PSI attacks always hit (as they don't rely on sight), but the effect can be resisted and damage reduced by Neural Resistance (NR).
- You can't be faster than a thought so PSI enemies have a much higher initiative
- Charisma boosts your NR, which can be increased further with implants, helmets, feats, and stims.
- Zen stim increases NR by 40 for 2 turns
- Improved Mindworms' attacks

Fight Balance
Some fights were way too easy and we apologize to everyone affected.

Misc

- Implants: you can extract them from dead bodies and repair them if they get damaged during extraction due to low skills.
- Gadgets: new tier and rebalance
- Expanded dialogues and quest improvements
- Attack effects' balance changes

To see the full list of changes, click here

* * *

Please note that while your save games will work just fine, it is strongly recommended to start a new game to properly experience the changes.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
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
https://steamcommunity.com/games/648410/announcements/detail/3133940383036474904?snr=1_2108_9__2107

Update notes for Dec 15, 2021

Quests and Dialogues

- Maryam's quest can now be completed before going to the Factory (new game needed).
- Added a possibility to tell Jonas and Braxton that you are not a fighter after you accepted the full attack choice (or left to prepare).
- Expanded dialogue with Nico, both when you arrive and reactions from your actions.
- Added trader to hydroponics.
- Added stealing opportunities to Fort Stanton trader, Shuttle Bay store and medic.

Difficulty

- Added tutorials.
- Added easy difficulty.

Psi Rework

- Charisma now adds Neural Resistance. Formula: (CHA-4)x5.
- Damage Reduction: Psi damage is reduced by Neural resistance percentage. Example, if neural resistance is 55, it's reduced by 55%. Min damage is 1. Damage always hits (no misses or grazes).
- Panic: Reduces AP by 10, Reaction and Evasion by 50. Does 5 psi damage per turn. Lasts 3 turns. Neural Resistance reduces these penalties percentually. So a character with 50 neural resistance gets AP -5 and reaction/evasion -25.
- Zen Stim: Neural resistance is increased by 40 for 2 turns. Reduces applied panic penalties (recalculated with new Neural Resistance). -2 PER for the duration of combat when used.
Feats

- New Feat: Slow Metabolism. +1 to stim duration.
- New Feat: Frog Hunter. Against Frogs: +10 Hit Chance, +10 Evasion, +5 Critical Strike. Obtained in hydroponics.
- Three new mutually exclusive Mutation Feats: Available as a reward for Maryam's quest. The effects increase by stim usage.
- Master Trader is available again: 25% discount on buying, +1 initial disposition.
- Quick Fingers cuts belt AP usage in half (rounded up), no longer affects looting.
- Artful dodger now grants +10 evasion when HP is 10 or less (instead of 7).
- Precise Strike increases Flurry, Swing and Double Strike Accuracy +10. Aimed increased to 15.
- Heavy Hitter adds +10 penetration (Knockdown attack accuracy removed).
- Gladiator reaction increased to 25 (from 20).
- Controlled Burst now gives Recoil Control +5.
- Berserker now lowers AP of Double Strike by 2 and Flurry by 3.
- Juggernaut is now graze damage +5 (from 4).
- Fast Runner also adds +2 free movement.
- Dodge This changed to: Ignores 20 points of cover, reaction attacks have Accuracy +25.

Attacks and Effects

- Bursts: No longer adds evasion penalty, but THC penalty on enemies is doubled. Effect on long bursts is increased by 50%.
- Aimed Burst: Penetration increased to 20%.
- Aimed Head: Critical is now stagger for 8 AP, 40% Penetration. No longer knockdowns.
- Knockdown attack: Now aims to the head (Aimed Accuracy bonuses apply to this attack now). Costs 3 AP more to use (from 1).
- Double Shot: Pistols can now use it at point blank.

Gadgets

- Added a new tier of gadget upgrades, rebalanced progression. You can now remove upgrades without having to replace them.
- Energy Shield: Shield DR: 3-5-7-9 / Recharge Rate: 3-4-5-6 / Shield HP: 15-25-35-45
- Distortion Field: Ranged THC Penalty: 30-35-40-45 / Zap Damage: 4-6/6-8/8-10/10-12 / THC Penalty: 5-10-15-20 / Duration: 2-3-4-5
- Cloaking Field: Detection per Turn: 50-40-30-20 / Thermal Defense: 10-30-50-70 / Duration: 2-3-4-5

Implant extraction

- You can now extract implants from enemies. Biotech 3: Eye-Datajack / 4: Motor Cortex-Squad Leader / 5: Spine-Heart / 6: Armor
- If 2 points below the check, you get a ruined implant (can be sold).
- If 1 point below, you get a damaged implant. You can then use electronics and an electronic module to fix it.
- All environment extractions use the same system.

Armor

- Armor skill increased to 4 per level.
- Rebalanced penalties, they are a bit higher overall for high DR armors.
- Vest: Assault, Reinforced Ballistic and Riot Light armor now have much higher DR, but don't allow jackets.
- Arm: Scav and Enforcer armguards have much higher DR, but don't allow jackets.
- Increased DR of helmets and boots, and rebalanced penalties.
- Two new armguards added: Ranger and Diver. They allow jackets, and are "upgrades" to the shield and raider ones.
- Two new leg pieces added: Trooper and Diver. They are similar to the enforcer boots but with different focuses.
- Added damaged and "old" variations of many armors. They have slightly lower DR, and are commonly used by enemies. Finding the regular versions is more uncommon.
- Added variations for armors. Some are cosmetic (face masks or worker jackets of different colors), others have unique stats.
- Safety helmets allow eyewear, and lose optical resistance.

New Weapons

- Added a new shotgun (Sharpface in the armory), new automatic rifle (ambushers in Mission Control), new revolver (dying man in Mission Control).
- Added the Power Saw (Hydroponics), Energy Club (Pit Gang) and Energy Blade (Factory). Might require a new game to obtain.
- Added an energy shotgun (shipmade). Clayton uses it instead of the damaged energy pistol.
- Added an energy SMG. Hargrave finds this weapon instead of the scoped energy rifle.
- Added clawhammer as a blunt weapon.

Weapon Changes

- M16 and M16A damage lowered.
- Increased damage of revolvers by 1.
- Increased max damage of burst only SMGs by 1.
- All knives get +10 penetration, Machete and Chopper +1 damage and +10 graze.
- Tweaked stats of 5 AP SMG, rebalancing damage, reaction, stagger and penetration.
- Tweaked stats of shotguns (lower range and minor damage increases).
- Knockdown: Effect removed from weapons, values moved to stagger (increased).

AI

- AI is less likely to choose very high DR enemies as targets.
- Improved AI grenade usage. If friendlies are in range and they can resist the damage, they'll use it. Same for hitting more enemies than friends.
- Improved AI behavior in close combat, now changes to melee if it can't do enough damage with ballistic snap attacks.
- Attack selection AI now takes into account penetration when checking DR.

Stealth

- Killing someone in stealth removes the cloaking field sneaking bonus until the start of your next turn.
- When an enemy alert level changes and says a phrase, nearby enemies alert level increases a bit as well.
- When an enemy finds a dead body his alert level goes up and generates noise. From now on, his alertness level doesn't go down from 50.
- Improved enemy reaction and memory regarding sounds.
- Now you can see the color of the tile you are on (helpful when standing on yellow tiles).
- Delay added when found on enemy turn, to get better feedback on what happened.

Enemies and looting

- Tweaked the difficulty of several fights.
- Added stims and grenades to several enemies.
- Changed most enemies' armor to worn versions.
- Removed unintended enforcer helmet from regulator.
- Removed some unintended enforcer boots on enemies.
- Changed most of the looted armors to fit the new progression.
- Slightly lowered the amount of stims and grenades that can be looted.
- Increased the level of several grenades that can be bought.
- Added some more armor and weapons to stores.
- Creepers and turrets have a bit more DR.
- Creeper does 2 more damage.

Mindworms

- Now does one attack per turn. Panic if character is not panicked, Mind Rend if it is.
- Mind Rend removes 2 perception, doesn't stack. Damage changed to 8-10 (from 10-15).
- Panic attack does 3-4 damage (from 2-3).
- Zap on melee attack now does 8-10 energy damage (from 6-8).
- AI now focuses on who's doing more damage to them.
- Has more varied HP (20-30-40 instead of 30).
- Ballistic and energy DR now 9-6 (from 8-5).

General

- Jed now has Armored Warfare and Charger instead of Too Close and Controlled Burst. Has slightly higher and more varied skills.
- Super Soldier melee damage reduced to 1-3 (from 2-4) and AP to 4 (from 5).
- Lowered gas grenade area of effect by 1.
- Stasis field expires on turn start, not turn end.
- Stims used from belts auto-equip if one is available. No longer usable from the inventory screen.
- Knockdown now doesn't remove defense granted by cover or gadgets.
- Tweaked arena layout.
- Reduced the impact on the Brotherhood reputation when you kill Clayton.
- Now showing "Talk to..." near the talk cursor.
- Save screen now shows a screenshot, map name, character level and xp.
- Improved lighting and reflections in the paperdoll.
- You can't loot in combat.
- Stims in the belt turn red if you can't use them.

Fixes

- Fixed several instances of missing fades in dialogue.
- Fixed several instances of dialogue skill gains appearing at the wrong time.
- Fixed power vest clipping through jackets.
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,838
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Coincidentally, now that we don't have to worry about first-time players, we can make the Hard difficulty a bit more challenging.
Challenge: Accepted.

Although I still think I might wait a few more months for my next playthrough(s).
 

jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,491
Yes and after the end credits there should be message like "now stop being a pussy and restart the game on normal".

Nah, introducing easy level is not decline at all considering the nightmare of balancing the game around 1-4 party members with infamous tight difficulty in mind. I'd rather play myself in the corner even with beta/EA experience under the belt than finish it without breaking a sweat because standarts at some point were somehow relaxed to please... whoever (have no idea, actually). Being hardcore and unforgiving is the part of the appeal, dammit.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Easy difficulty is fine for the noobs that would get filtered otherwise (or don't know how to use Cheat Engine like real maxmaxers, pinging my fellow maxmaxer fantadomat :M )

Real men just play on normal or hard and know what to expect because they played AoD and DR before.
 

Parabalus

Arcane
Joined
Mar 23, 2015
Messages
17,432
Since you added explicit difficulty settings add a solo mode like in DR.

As things are now the number of party members is basically also a difficulty setting.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
Joined
Oct 7, 2019
Messages
5,869
I'm waiting for dedicated mods to add more enemies to every encounter.

Is it really difficult if you don't get screwed on action economy? Rhetorical question: it's not.

:)
 
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
4,229
I don't know if difficulty modes are a good idea. Tweaking a few numbers won't make the game necessary fun for casuals and they will still complain about design decisions that are too demanding for them like a lack of quest markers/compasses.
 

Elhoim

Iron Tower Studio
Developer
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
2,878
Location
San Isidro, Argentina
I don't know if difficulty modes are a good idea. Tweaking a few numbers won't make the game necessary fun for casuals and they will still complain about design decisions that are too demanding for them like a lack of quest markers/compasses.

The quest marker crowd is not in our radar. This is for people who bought the game, really like it as it is, but struggle a lot with the combat. Plus the game doesn't have voiceovers and romances, so we are safe from most casuals.
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,838
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
I don't know if difficulty modes are a good idea. Tweaking a few numbers won't make the game necessary fun for casuals and they will still complain about design decisions that are too demanding for them like a lack of quest markers/compasses.

The quest marker crowd is not in our radar. This is for people who bought the game, really like it as it is, but struggle a lot with the combat. Plus the game doesn't have voiceovers and romances, so we are safe from most casuals.
I can certainly see how some people might prefer to start with an easy mode to learn the ropes, as opposed to making half a dozen characters who can't make it past an hour. It's not so terrible a crime: most people learn to ride a bike with training wheels on.
 
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
4,229
I don't know if difficulty modes are a good idea. Tweaking a few numbers won't make the game necessary fun for casuals and they will still complain about design decisions that are too demanding for them like a lack of quest markers/compasses.

The quest marker crowd is not in our radar. This is for people who bought the game, really like it as it is, but struggle a lot with the combat. Plus the game doesn't have voiceovers and romances, so we are safe from most casuals.

At first you think that, but in few years time/ few next games you may start to worry about people who bought the game, really like it as it is, but struggle a lot with the finding the right way so you add optional quest markers. And the next game down the line you turn quest markers on by default because it's too much to demand from casuals to find options for them. Decline comes not through a big jump, but also through a thousand small steps.
 

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