Colony Ship: First System Update

[Pink Eye]

Well the thing is that Colony Ship really didn't need optional modes. It's not a combat oriented game like Dungeon Rats: there is no way to avoid encounters, make them easy, sneak, or just "talk" your way out of everything. Dungeon Rats is ballbusting hard from start to finish. Never letting up. Resources had to be managed carefully. Damage had to be mitigated as much as possible during combat - or you'll be wasting too much heals. Fights got progressively harder and harder with no break. In contrast. Colony Ship offers the player many ways of playing. First you have the three basic: Combat, Stealth, Story. Then, in between, you have various skills and options to either completely avoid encounters or make them easier. For example, a combat build with a couple points of streetwise can tell thugs near apartment to go away. A hybrid that focuses on persuasion skills with some combat skills. Can request to Braxton or Jonas a much easier battle instead of committing to final siege.

So just as an RPG should; Colony Ship gives the player tools to play how they want. Sadly some players couldn't figure it out. Which is a shame. I love this game. I love the setting. I love the companions. I especially enjoy the hardcore combats. If Hero Mode can help Iron Tower sell more units while ensuring a sequel happens in this universe which I adore so much. Then I don't care.

Anyways. Here's a character from the Hero Mode:

^Not mine but you can see how silly it is. They managed to reach max level in multiple skills in early game, nuts, LOL!

For comparison. Here's a build from a recent run that I just finished yesterday:

 

[Parabalus]

Well the thing is that Colony Ship really didn't need optional modes. It's not a combat oriented game like Dungeon Rats: there is no way to avoid encounters, make them easy, sneak, or just "talk" your way out of everything. Dungeon Rats is ballbusting hard from start to finish. Never letting up. Resources had to be managed carefully. Damage had to be mitigated as much as possible during combat - or you'll be wasting too much heals. Fights got progressively harder and harder with no break. In contrast. Colony Ship offers the player many ways of playing. First you have the three basic: Combat, Stealth, Story. Then, in between, you have various skills and options to either completely avoid encounters or make them easier. For example, a combat build with a couple points of streetwise can tell thugs near apartment to go away. A hybrid that focuses on persuasion skills with some combat skills. Can request to Braxton or Jonas a much easier battle instead of committing to final siege.

So just as an RPG should; Colony Ship gives the player tools to play how they want. Sadly some players couldn't figure it out. Which is a shame. I love this game. I love the setting. I love the companions. I especially enjoy the hardcore combats. If Hero Mode can help Iron Tower sell more units while ensuring a sequel happens in this universe which I adore so much. Then I don't care.

Anyways. Here's a character from the Hero Mode:

^Not mine but you can see how silly it is. They managed to reach max level in multiple skills in early game, nuts, LOL!

For comparison. Here's a build from a recent run that I just finished yesterday:

DR is much easier since it's combat only, in CS the more you invest in combat abilities the more you are cucking yourself out of other content.

And on the first few runs you have no idea how much, so you err on the side of lower combat skills.

 

[jackofshadows]

DR is much easier since it's combat only, in CS the more you invest in combat abilities the more you are cucking yourself out of other content.

And vise versa. If you used your non-combat skills too much, the chances are you won't be able to win in some specific encounter. Basically we have similiar AoD hybrid guy predicament except it's much hardder to balance out skill development.

Although that would be what Hero's mode for judging by the first feed back screen: you don't have to care there about your skill balance at all other than in fact the more diverse skills you use - the better since you'll max them out pretty soon and would have only more options later.

 

[Pink Eye]

DR is much easier since it's combat only

Bro I struggled on my solo runs. More so in solo Iron Man as well. Haven't completed Iron Man, but I have completed Solo, suffice to say, it was more tough than Age of Decadence.

 

[AwesomeButton]

It's great that Colony Ship seems to be attracting a less-than-hardcore audience, probably thanks to the Steam EA. I have confidence the team will succeed in isolating the casuals into their own difficulty setting until they are ready to switch to Normal.

My experience from AoD when I got my wife to play it was that she really liked the setting and writing, but needed to play with a steam guide in order to have a strong enough character build. I'm guessing Colony Ship's easy mode will target players exactly like her and help them get into the game.

I played around with the combat beta for a while, but when the EA began I didn't join so as to not spoil anything. Should I join the EA now? I don't expect there will be big changes to mechanics after this one.

 

[Pink Eye]

My experience from AoD when I got my wife to play it was that she really liked the setting and writing, but needed to play with a steam guide in order to have a strong enough character build

That's pretty much how most of the negative reviews read for Colony Ship. "I like the setting, but combats too hard".

Should I join the EA now?

I don't see why not. The game's pretty smooth at this point. It contains: Pit, Armory, Shuttle Bay, Hydroponics, Mission Control; plus several sub levels within those maps. You can squeeze countless hours of entertainment from those maps. Not many bugs either. Besides, having more feedback is always beneficial for the developers since it helps them with development. If you're going to attempt a combat build. I recommend sticking to the premade - they created three premade builds for the player to pick. If you find yourself struggling too much, note that you can always avoid encounters and come back to them later. I further implore you to do the first arena fight at Court House. It has you facing one person whose moderately weak. This is a great way of getting a feel of things while gaining easy experience. Make sure you pick up Evans too. Visiting Tanner at Whiskey Jack tells you where to find him. You have to do a fight to get him but its pretty easy, plus more experience.

Once that's done. Follow up on the Braxton/Jonas conflict. Doing the first part of where you just talk to the leaders. Will get you to level two. Thus you're at a much better start than most: who just go to Armory on first level. Fail at froggos. Then write negative review on how impossible combat is.

 

[jackofshadows]

I played around with the combat beta for a while, but when the EA began I didn't join so as to not spoil anything. Should I join the EA now?

If you don't want to spoil things then.... no? There's lot to spoil already and soon there will be the Habitat: basically Maadoran analogue. I'm thinking about refraining from playing EA untill the release myself for that reason. On the other hand, if you want to just experiment with builds and explore the combat pillar - you're in for the treat.

 

[welly321]

Is this game like Age of Decadance where you are linearly thrust through different events? I hated that about Age of Decadence.

 

[AwesomeButton]

That's pretty much how most of the negative reviews read for Colony Ship. "I like the setting, but combats too hard".

She sure liked the combat as well, and how weapon choice matters especially, it's just she also realized that there is very little margin for error when allocating skill points.

 

[FreshCorpse]

A suggestion: when you implement easy mode, don't call it "easy". Follow the old Doom pattern of giving difficulty levels names.

When presented with "easy", "normal" and "hard" many people who should pick "easy" refuse out of pride, but they are much less likely to refuse "Hey, not too rough" for the same reason (admittedly partly because it's option 2 of 5 rather than 1 of 3). I'm saying this because I bet when you provide an easy mode you will still have 95% of negative reviews complaining about the difficulty - from people who simply refuse to use easy mode. A rose by any other name...

 

[Pink Eye]

I mean. Isn't that what they're already doing?

Easy Mode is called 'Hero Mode'.

 

[FreshCorpse]

Aha - the big brains are way ahead of me

EDIT: 'w' character looks pretty fucked up in that font?

 

[Pink Eye]

Yeah people already talked about the word font on main thread. I dunno if the devs will get around to fixing it.

 

[agris]

To this point, Vault Dweller the “w” and “v” characters look italicized. They don’t fit with the rest of the font.

Also, another font discussion point: remember how we talked about how to improve at-a-glance readability of the message log? Specifically, how to improve distinguishing a multi line message from a new message? I recall you said you tried changing line spacing but it resulted in lower line density in the log, a no-go.

Have you considered making all the characters in the log print in small caps, while the first letter of a discrete message always prints in full caps? Like the image below, but only the first letter of the entire sentence is a full height capital.

 

[luj1]

Is this game like Age of Decadance where you are linearly thrust through different events? I hated that about Age of Decadence.

it's supposed to be their full-fledged RPG

(full-flegged as in having normal gameplay, not CYOA booklet that teleports you around)

 

[Pink Eye]

I still think the combat log can benefit from something like this:

Less details on log, but when you right click or hover. More details pop up.

 

[Sheepherder]

Has the lower case w been fixed yet?

 

[Vault Dweller]

To this point, Vault Dweller the “w” and “v” characters look italicized. They don’t fit with the rest of the font.

Also, another font discussion point: remember how we talked about how to improve at-a-glance readability of the message log? Specifically, how to improve distinguishing a multi line message from a new message? I recall you said you tried changing line spacing but it resulted in lower line density in the log, a no-go.

Have you considered making all the characters in the log print in small caps, while the first letter of a discrete message always prints in full caps? Like the image below, but only the first letter of the entire sentence is a full height capital.

There's no time to fuck around with fonts. Like at all.

 

[MF]

fonts

Fixing that v and w shouldn't take long if you know how. I'd be glad to do it for you if you want. It doesn't look like you did anything special to the font atlas mapping in UE, so it should be a matter of just inserting the modified otf file.

 

[agris]

Fixing that v and w shouldn't take long if you know how. I'd be glad to do it for you if you want. It doesn't look like you did anything special to the font atlas mapping in UE, so it should be a matter of just inserting the modified otf file.

I daresay, do it and provide the modified files. I doubt VD would ask for it, but if you provide it there's a chance they at least try it.

 

[MF]

Fair enough.

Vault Dweller, I sent an email to info@irontower with the adjusted font.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thank you very much.

 

[gurugeorge]

I mean. Isn't that what they're already doing?

Easy Mode is called 'Hero Mode'.

Actually that seems like a rather smart way of presenting the game to me. Kudos to the developers for thinking it through that way.

"Story Mode" is another way of presenting the sweet spot for casual players, but "Hero Mode" sounds kinda cooler

**********

(Rambling)

Difficulties are always a tricky thing. For me, I like a difficulty that's just above flat/normal - ultra difficulties usually funnel you too much into being a one-trick-pony, whereas I prefer to feel like a more rounded character with a Golden Mean spread (very good at one thing, pretty good at another, passable at another).

It is after all what real life is like to a large extent - fighters usually also have to be somewhat intelligent, smart people should be able to deal with a physical altercation without shaming themselves. (One of the interesting things about anime is that the smart guys may be bespectacled like in Western stuff, but they are never complete nebbishes, they're obviously not as good fighters as dedicated fighters, but they can handle themselves okay - and vice-versa, fighters can come up with clever solutions to problems sometimes. This goes back through mythology - King Arthur may not have been quite as good a fighter as Sir Lancelot, but he was pretty good; Odysseus dealt with most things via guile, but he could also handle himself in a fight. Same with some fantasy - e.g. Jack Vance's characters are pretty well-rounded, his magicians don't dump STR, etc.)

What is the cause of hybrids being weaker in CRPGs? I suppose it's to do with the fact that CRPGs are necessarily more combat-centric than tabletop, plus in that context it's also really difficult to implement any sort of system that's more complicated than "damage is king," so all the emphasis goes into min-maxing for just one kind of combat effectiveness.

 

[Pink Eye]

Actually that seems like a rather smart way of presenting the game to me. Kudos to the developers for thinking it through that way.

Yeah. It's also color coded. Subtlety guiding new players to pick blue one because blue is good and red is bad.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

What is the cause of hybrids being weaker in CRPGs? I suppose it's to do with the fact that CRPGs are necessarily more combat-centric than tabletop, plus in that context it's also really difficult to implement any sort of system that's more complicated than "damage is king," so all the emphasis goes into min-maxing for just one kind of combat effectiveness.

It's also caused by the fact that resolutions in RPGs tend to be binary in nature, you either have enough points to pass challenge or not. This is a difficult problem to solve because you would need to implement granular outcomes to challenges, which would geometrically increase the amount of work you have to do.