Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.
"This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.
I have made a mod using the Reshade add-on Shader Toggler, the mod removes the highlights/outlines from party members, NPCs and environment interactables. There is a dynmaic cursor when hovering over anything interactable, this extra layer of visual confirmation is unneeded (for me) and negatively mpacts the otherwise solid artwork (again subjective). The mod also has the option to turn off the grid in combat, which again is strictly speaking unneccessary, as even when it is hidden, hovering over a square you are able to move to will still let you know if it is possible and how many action points it will take. Here are some before and after screens..... (grid mod off had to be removed due to the 5 pieces of media per post rule, but I'm sure you get the idea).
Question is, do you have any objections to me sharing this for other people interested in making the game a bit more beautiful? Would understand if, given their recent behaviour, you don't want your game on Nexus mods, there are some alternative mod sites I could use if you're cool with it. Follow up question as well, AoD didn't have these highlights, but I have noticed that nearly all other recent CRPGs have them and it is typically not optional, hence the need to brute force it off with a mod. Is there a reason this is now seen as a must have non-optional feature in CRPGs? I have made and shared identical mods that remove the forced highlights from WotR and BG3 and have mode many others I haven't bothered to share.
Edit: Images have failed, will fix. Also, is there a preview post function? Thanks.
I'm a new member and don't seem to have the option to edit posts. I'm sure the button was there before at the bottom right of the post, but its gone. Any ideas?
So I've finished the game a couple of times and can finally say something about it.
tl;dr
8/10 game, nowhere near as good as Age of Decadence (which is a 10/10 game).
+ Fights are great, challenging and rewarding.
+ Sneaking is great.
- Writing took a significant dive and the whole setup is weak. We must have amnesia because we're constantly asking stupid questions and we know nothing even about things that we definitely should know about living so many years in the Pit. It's not Summoner level of writing (where ALL MC's responses were questions) but it's no Age of Decadence level. There are also no memorable characters here (maybe besides our companions), just quest givers and lore dumpers.
In AoD Miltiades is legendary, he's a very colourful character and when we first meet him he doesn't give you a quest, on the contrary, WE are his quest. Or Neleos, he doesn't speak much but the things he says are interesting and his pragmatism and coldness are very refreshing (plus he's honorable despite being an assassin). Feng on the other hand is antipathetic and bitter but under right circumstances we can learn a bit about his past and profit from it at the same time. Dellar and Antidas are memorable too (for different reasons) and these are only from Teron.
- I know I'll be in minority but I miss AoD teleporting, here there's too much pointless walking IMO, e.g. from Eli to Ava, from Ava to Armory, then to the bridge but here we need to click on doors that say "keep traveling" a couple of times even though these locations contain nothing but these doors. Utterly pointless. Or when we deliver a warning we have to talk to each leader (thankfully we only have to click once on a gate) and then do the extra step of going to Ava. It allows us the chance to go to mission control or to courthouse but we might as well do it from ECLSS and not waste time in case we're not interested in further exploring.
What's worse though, there are times when we don't want to be teleported but we have no choice or we don't have time to use acquired feat because a dialogue starts. There was also that time when after a fight where we helped Faythe a conversation starts and she gains a feat that is utterly arbitrary so if we get one we don't want we have to repeat the fight (which at this point is hard, especially for a non-combat character).
- I have a feeling that the game is much more linear than AoD, we can't just explore the ship and there is certain order how we do things required from us (e.g. we get the message: "you should finish Tanner's quest" first or here once we get in we can't retry even when we're not caught). Some of it is justified but more often than not it's not and it was probably added for easier scripting (e.g. we can't return to the Pit until we offer the machine to one of the factions).
- Areas are too fragmented (like in Underrail) and we have to click on a ladder/platform/bushes/'squeeze through door' to progress. Too much pointless clicking for my taste. In AoD bigger locations had only a couple of those, here even small areas have quite a few of them.
- Besides Mission Control, Hydroponics and The Pit locations are rather disappointing. The Habitat is just a shadow of Maadoran, there's not that much to do here really. Factory got a little better but the Dumont encounter is still retarded and they don't even confiscate our weapons when we go for a talk (it's a theme here though, important people allow us to see them face to face and be armed to the teeth instead of doing it remotely or seeing us only after we hand over the weapons). The rest of locations isn't more impressive either.
- Going somewhere requires precision mouse pointing, I can't just click very close to a specific location, I need to be exact. Very often I can't enter some building or go through a bridge because I need to click on an exact tile.
- Combat reputation (and reputation in general) doesn't give enough, 10 combat is nothing but if I've had much more (we get "deadly" at 40) I certainly would prefer a fight to get loot than to get nothing at all. With persuasion/streetwise at least we're increasing our skills, here it allows us only to pass a check that in a long run is detrimental because not only do we not get loot but also we're missing on some valuable experience points.
- You can't sneak alone in Hydroponics Yellow Zone, even though one person would be enough do the job. You have to sneak with all party even when no one else can sneak, lol.
- We can't escape from a fight, something that I miss from AoD (although IIRC they've changed it in later versions of AoD where escaping was most of the time impossible). Of course there could be encounters with no escape (e.g. if you would fall into a trap and the doors would be locked or guarded) but there are some where escaping should be possible (e.g. in Hydroponics behind the fence, where there are a lot of frogs).
- Sneaking is great and one of the high points of the game but it's annoying that you need to meta game in order to properly build your character around it. Faythe that is built for it can't for example sneak properly through Mercy's base due to too low STR (there is a conduit there that can help us, although going through here would definitely make so much noise that you would have to be deaf to not hear it). It's not that necessary but it's annoying that a character that you're specifically tailoring for sneaking can stumble upon an obstacle that she can't overcome. Computers/electronics checks also come into play here.
- Some things don't make sense, e.g. we only have to pay the toll once to go to the Habitat, later we can just teleport for free, we also can see Silas with -10 reputation or we get only 20 exp points in computers after passing a 7 skill check. Another example is when Shadow leaves us in a control room where we can program the turrets to attack him and his men even though they are skilled enough to program them themselves and if we won't do it he and the turrets will attack us.
- Jed/Evans/Faythe are waiting at Whiskey Jack till the end only to tell me that they won't rejoin me, lol.
- We can't snipe from afar (Hydroponics, Red Zone, where we see creepers and floaters below) - this is an extreme nitpick but it would be hilarious if we could just snipe tough creepers and floaters from the tower and they wouldn't be able to do a thing.
After all this you might ask WTF have I rated this game so high? And the answer is simple - weighted mean. Pros outweigh the cons because it's really fun to play. Despite its significant flaws the game is enjoyable and I already have over 120 hours and counting. I'll definitely play again and make a completely different build.
It seems you need to pay monies to the great Codex lords to get access to the coveted editing option. Or you wait months. Just make a new post with your screenshots on the mod. I just want to see what this grid mode looks like.
I put my combat run on pause to play a pure CHA character just so I could see the story all the way through, and sorry to say but I am finding all kinds of issues with it.
The Pit
(a) Why should the Player care what happens to the Pit? We aren't really affected regardless of who wins.
(b) Why are Jonas and Braxton willing to place so much trust in the Player to resolve things? The Player is a nobody, so why would they place their livelihood in his hands.
(c) If the Player is so important, why do neither Jonas nor Braxton offer ANYTHING of substance in exchange for our help?
The Factory
Basically the same issue as above. From the Player's perspective what is the difference between Stanton, Bartholomew, and Dumont? We have no vested interest in who controls the Toll Road, and none of the belligerents offer us anything in exchange for our help.
The Habitat
We learn that we have this potentially priceless piece of tech and we're supposed to just... give it away? Again, why don't the different factions try to persuade us? Or threaten us? Or something? Instead you just walk up to them and say "hey I have this thing, here you go". WTF?
House of Ecclesiastes
So whichever faction you choose will take you to see the monks, who explain the machine is needed to augment the Ship's failing life support capabilities. And we are essentially tasked with getting it up and running. Then after you find the parts, you get back to the Armory and apparently your faction doesn't want you to give the machine to the monks now, to the point where they're willing to come to blows over it. So where does this come from and what is their alternative plan?
That is as far as I've gotten, but given how the storytelling in AoD was top notch I am very surprised. What am I missing? Is this all eventually going to make sense if I just see the story through?
100% that. Also the Habitat itself is one of the biggest disappointments of the game. First of all why does it feel so empty and lifeless. Shrouded Hills alone from Arcanum had more content. Second the QUALITY of quests. I have seen more complex and creative quests in those Russian Fallout stand alone mods (Nevada, Sonora) and they are completely free by the way. And finally the way the area is designed is just beyond lazy and stupid. You have THE SAME algorithm for all factions. Talk to "right hand man" quest givers, once you finish their simple tasks you get to see the Bosses and offer the machine to them just like that. LOL
Repost as the images failed in the original post and I can't edit as I'm new.
Question for VD.
I have made a mod using the Reshade add-on Shader Toggler, the mod removes the highlights/outlines from party members, NPCs and environment interactables. There is a dynmaic cursor when hovering over anything interactable, this extra layer of visual confirmation is not needed (for me) and negatively mpacts the otherwise solid artwork (again impact is subjective). The mod also has the option to turn off the grid in combat, which again is strictly speaking uneccessary, as even when it is hidden, hovering over a square you are able to move to will still let you know if it is possible and how many action points it will take. Here are some before and after screens..... I'll add the grid images to a separate post.
NPC Highlight Mod Off
NPC Highlight Mod On
Environment Highlight Mod Off
Environment Highlight Mod On
Question is, do you have any objections to me sharing this for other people interested in making the game a bit more beautiful? Would understand if, given their recent behaviour, you don't want your game on Nexus mods, there are some alternative mod sites I could use if you're cool with it. Follow up question as well, AoD didn't have these highlights, but I have noticed that nearly all other recent CRPGs have them and it is typically not optional, hence the need to brute force it off with a mod. Is there a reason this is now seen as a must have non-optional feature in CRPGs? I have made and shared identical mods that remove the forced highlights from WotR and BG3 and have mode many others I haven't bothered to share.
Is there any way to get an additional tagged skill? I blew one of Faith's tags on stealing, and it's already maxxed out in the middle of the game. It is very useless, I have actually only encountered one check in the whole game where I needed that tag. Meanwhile, I am chronically short on electronics. I have already gained an additional tag from overclocked int as well as the feat.
Also, if there is no way, would it make more sense to just have someone else develop electronics, even though they have no skill monkey? Faythe is currently at 6. I could give the tag to another character with 1 electronics and develop from there.
If you messed up and want to adjust your characters a little, it is possible to hex edit the saves without too much trouble. Just resist the temptation to go too far with it.
Hey, thanks agris. Just thought I would pay VD his due respect as he seems to be active in this thread and it seemed the right thing to do given this is his baby!
- Writing took a significant dive and the whole setup is weak. We must have amnesia because we're constantly asking stupid questions and we know nothing even about things that we definitely should know about living so many years in the Pit.
Even when start is horrible and actual gameplay contradicts setting it is already shows how bad it is.
You act like stranger suffering from amnesia and at same time you are told that you lived many years in Pit and should know place and people very well, given how small Pit is.
For newbies, the edit button is only available for five minutes after the post is made. Once you've been on the Codex for a year, or have equipped the ring, you can freely edit your posts, although an edited notification will appear on the post if the edit does not occur within five minutes of posting.
Is there any way to get an additional tagged skill? I blew one of Faith's tags on stealing, and it's already maxxed out in the middle of the game. It is very useless, I have actually only encountered one check in the whole game where I needed that tag. Meanwhile, I am chronically short on electronics. I have already gained an additional tag from overclocked int as well as the feat.
Also, if there is no way, would it make more sense to just have someone else develop electronics, even though they have no skill monkey? Faythe is currently at 6. I could give the tag to another character with 1 electronics and develop from there.
If you messed up and want to adjust your characters a little, it is possible to hex edit the saves without too much trouble. Just resist the temptation to go too far with it.
Turns out there was just a bit of the game left and there was little use for more electronics. My characters ended up being level 6-7 at endgame even though it looked like I was being fairly completionist.
Endgame party and outcome:
Ended up siding with the church and letting it annex the Pit. I was a bit miffed that there was no way to land the ship under the Church. I assume it would need some agreement with the Mutants, whom I didn't try to win over as they are of the Devil. I also tried the alternative ending with sending the ship back to earth, which leads to a very negative situation but a fun fight where you can use up your remaining consumables that you hoarded throughout the game.
The main Church ending seems nice and optimistic, everything is basically in order.
Question is, do you have any objections to me sharing this for other people interested in making the game a bit more beautiful? ... Is there a reason this is now seen as a must have non-optional feature in CRPGs?
I appreciate you liking the work I did on the environment, and I play without the permanent outlines on (the one in our settings). But seeing at the screenshots it really makes the game a lot harder to read (especially where you can move on, the grid doesn't perfectly match the visuals in some areas) and I wouldn't recommend any new player to use it as it can create a lot of confusion and conflicting visual feedback (where to walk, what to interact with, etc). It could make debugging and wading through false reports harder. But go ahead, it's part of the job =)
So I've finished the game a couple of times and can finally say something about it.
tl;dr
8/10 game, nowhere near as good as Age of Decadence (which is a 10/10 game).
+ Fights are great, challenging and rewarding.
+ Sneaking is great.
- Writing took a significant dive and the whole setup is weak. We must have amnesia because we're constantly asking stupid questions and we know nothing even about things that we definitely should know about living so many years in the Pit. It's not Summoner level of writing (where ALL MC's responses were questions) but it's no Age of Decadence level. There are also no memorable characters here (maybe besides our companions), just quest givers and lore dumpers.
In AoD Miltiades is legendary, he's a very colourful character and when we first meet him he doesn't give you a quest, on the contrary, WE are his quest. Or Neleos, he doesn't speak much but the things he says are interesting and his pragmatism and coldness are very refreshing (plus he's honorable despite being an assassin). Feng on the other hand is antipathetic and bitter but under right circumstances we can learn a bit about his past and profit from it at the same time. Dellar and Antidas are memorable too (for different reasons) and these are only from Teron.
- I know I'll be in minority but I miss AoD teleporting, here there's too much pointless walking IMO, e.g. from Eli to Ava, from Ava to Armory, then to the bridge but here we need to click on doors that say "keep traveling" a couple of times even though these locations contain nothing but these doors. Utterly pointless. Or when we deliver a warning we have to talk to each leader (thankfully we only have to click once on a gate) and then do the extra step of going to Ava. It allows us the chance to go to mission control or to courthouse but we might as well do it from ECLSS and not waste time in case we're not interested in further exploring.
What's worse though, there are times when we don't want to be teleported but we have no choice or we don't have time to use acquired feat because a dialogue starts. There was also that time when after a fight where we helped Faythe a conversation starts and she gains a feat that is utterly arbitrary so if we get one we don't want we have to repeat the fight (which at this point is hard, especially for a non-combat character).
- I have a feeling that the game is much more linear than AoD, we can't just explore the ship and there is certain order how we do things required from us (e.g. we get the message: "you should finish Tanner's quest" first or here once we get in we can't retry even when we're not caught). Some of it is justified but more often than not it's not and it was probably added for easier scripting (e.g. we can't return to the Pit until we offer the machine to one of the factions).
- Areas are too fragmented (like in Underrail) and we have to click on a ladder/platform/bushes/'squeeze through door' to progress. Too much pointless clicking for my taste. In AoD bigger locations had only a couple of those, here even small areas have quite a few of them.
- Besides Mission Control, Hydroponics and The Pit locations are rather disappointing. The Habitat is just a shadow of Maadoran, there's not that much to do here really. Factory got a little better but the Dumont encounter is still retarded and they don't even confiscate our weapons when we go for a talk (it's a theme here though, important people allow us to see them face to face and be armed to the teeth instead of doing it remotely or seeing us only after we hand over the weapons). The rest of locations isn't more impressive either.
- Going somewhere requires precision mouse pointing, I can't just click very close to a specific location, I need to be exact. Very often I can't enter some building or go through a bridge because I need to click on an exact tile.
- Combat reputation (and reputation in general) doesn't give enough, 10 combat is nothing but if I've had much more (we get "deadly" at 40) I certainly would prefer a fight to get loot than to get nothing at all. With persuasion/streetwise at least we're increasing our skills, here it allows us only to pass a check that in a long run is detrimental because not only do we not get loot but also we're missing on some valuable experience points.
- You can't sneak alone in Hydroponics Yellow Zone, even though one person would be enough do the job. You have to sneak with all party even when no one else can sneak, lol.
- We can't escape from a fight, something that I miss from AoD (although IIRC they've changed it in later versions of AoD where escaping was most of the time impossible). Of course there could be encounters with no escape (e.g. if you would fall into a trap and the doors would be locked or guarded) but there are some where escaping should be possible (e.g. in Hydroponics behind the fence, where there are a lot of frogs).
- Sneaking is great and one of the high points of the game but it's annoying that you need to meta game in order to properly build your character around it. Faythe that is built for it can't for example sneak properly through Mercy's base due to too low STR (there is a conduit there that can help us, although going through here would definitely make so much noise that you would have to be deaf to not hear it). It's not that necessary but it's annoying that a character that you're specifically tailoring for sneaking can stumble upon an obstacle that she can't overcome. Computers/electronics checks also come into play here.
- Some things don't make sense, e.g. we only have to pay the toll once to go to the Habitat, later we can just teleport for free, we also can see Silas with -10 reputation or we get only 20 exp points in computers after passing a 7 skill check. Another example is when Shadow leaves us in a control room where we can program the turrets to attack him and his men even though they are skilled enough to program them themselves and if we won't do it he and the turrets will attack us.
- Jed/Evans/Faythe are waiting at Whiskey Jack till the end only to tell me that they won't rejoin me, lol.
- We can't snipe from afar (Hydroponics, Red Zone, where we see creepers and floaters below) - this is an extreme nitpick but it would be hilarious if we could just snipe tough creepers and floaters from the tower and they wouldn't be able to do a thing.
After all this you might ask WTF have I rated this game so high? And the answer is simple - weighted mean. Pros outweigh the cons because it's really fun to play. Despite its significant flaws the game is enjoyable and I already have over 120 hours and counting. I'll definitely play again and make a completely different build.
I agree regarding memorable characters and the game being more linear.
The part about it being woke because there's black people and stronk womyn is hilarious though. We're not in Ancient Rome here, it's a generation ship in the year of 2754 launched into space by the church. Poles will be poles, I guess.
Use keys 1, 2 and 3 and switch between attacks (you have to press 1 or 2 or 3 a couple of times to choose the attack you want though, 1 is for power/normal/fast attack or for snap shot normal attack, 2 is for aimed attacks and 3 is for special attacks like fanning).
Writing took a significant dive and the whole setup is weak. We must have amnesia because we're constantly asking stupid questions and we know nothing even about things that we definitely should know about living so many years in the Pit. It's not Summoner level of writing (where ALL MC's responses were questions) but it's no Age of Decadence level.
One thing you see in most RPGs that's missing here is the Main Character usually is new to the game world in some way, so it makes sense why they wouldn't know a lot and need to ask questions. This fits nicely with the Player learning about the world for the first time.
It might seem impossible in a closed world like CS, but sci-fi is virtually limitless. For example, make the Main Character someone from the time of the Mutiny who's been in trapped in stasis until divers happen to find you in some far off corner of the ship. You wake up physically intact, but being under for hundreds of years has wiped your memory and abilities. However, people look at you with a certain curiosity, which leads the power players in the world to try to use you for their purposes... cue the plot.
That's nothing novel and a bit Chosen One-ish but point is, if we weren't going to get different game starts like in AoD, I wish we could've at least gotten a more interesting setup to the story than "you wake up in your apartment after 25 years of doing nothing and decide to go on an adventure".