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Incline Colony Ship RELEASE THREAD

Joined
Feb 19, 2005
Messages
4,633
Strap Yourselves In Codex+ Now Streaming!
reloading
The game feels like a choice between constant reloading (combat) or walking sim (skillchecks) with little in between.
I mean, isn't this true for any game that has combat and skillchecks? Fallout 1/2? Underrail? AoD?

You can make perfectly viable hybrid characters in games like Fallout 1/2 or Arcanum. In fact I think it would be absurd and quite difficult in both games to create a character that is *only* good at talking. In AoD and from what I understand CS, hybrid characters are not really a thing.
 

Mauman

Scholar
Joined
Jun 30, 2021
Messages
1,218
(I actually think a dedicated swindler setting/quest, where you have to lie to different NPCs to, say, get them to invest in a completely fake company/building project, could be interesting for VD writing & ITS design.)
jpcC6WB.jpg

reloading
The game feels like a choice between constant reloading (combat) or walking sim (skillchecks) with little in between.
I mean, isn't this true for any game that has combat and skillchecks? Fallout 1/2? Underrail? AoD?

You can make perfectly viable hybrid characters in games like Fallout 1/2 or Arcanum. In fact I think it would be absurd and quite difficult in both games to create a character that is *only* good at talking. In AoD and from what I understand CS, hybrid characters are not really a thing.
You can do a hybrid in AoD. It's tricky, but doable. I've done it myself. In CS, if you really want to go hybrid, then play hero mode. I've done it and it works. At least through Habitat as I haven't gone any farther yet.

Still too busy playing the new stuff in Underrail. Both the new DLC and the other stuff that came out since I last played. Also, playing my first Dom run. So uh....having "fun" with that.
 

TheDarkUrge

Educated
Joined
Aug 21, 2023
Messages
229
The thing about skillchecks, I think, is that their fun factor really depends on the writing and design around the skillcheck.

A talkie playthrough is, often, at the end of the day just "see highest check I can pass, click, ???? => WIN!". It's like a platformer with no jumping. What makes it satisfying is that the dialogue and level design sets up some expectations, and then the skillcheck lets you break them in cool ways. You get a good buildup of an intimidating tough guy bruiser who screams he's too tough for you, and then you get the satisfaction of a clever set of verbal defenestration.

I think one of the things AOD did so well is that there were quite a few places where you felt, this is the kind of persuasion check I've never gotten to do elsewhere, this is the kind of screwy thing I rarely get to convince people to do. (Something similar happens with Alpha Protocol and its reactivity options.) And having really strongly flavoured characters, as well as the political intrigue turned up to 11, really maximised the satisfaction here. (I actually think a dedicated swindler setting/quest, where you have to lie to different NPCs to, say, get them to invest in a completely fake company/building project, could be interesting for VD writing & ITS design.)
Sometimes they weren't even persuasion skill checks but stuff like [bodycount] or [word of honor]. Pretty cool.

reloading
The game feels like a choice between constant reloading (combat) or walking sim (skillchecks) with little in between.
I mean, isn't this true for any game that has combat and skillchecks? Fallout 1/2? Underrail? AoD?

You can make perfectly viable hybrid characters in games like Fallout 1/2 or Arcanum. In fact I think it would be absurd and quite difficult in both games to create a character that is *only* good at talking. In AoD and from what I understand CS, hybrid characters are not really a thing.
I am playing through AoD right now again and I'm doing a hybrid build as a boatman. Impersonate, sneak, alch, crit, bow, dagger are all above 5 levels.
 

agris

Arcane
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Joined
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Messages
6,925
reloading
The game feels like a choice between constant reloading (combat) or walking sim (skillchecks) with little in between.
if you're constantly reloading to win combat, you:

1) are fighting something too difficult for you, or
2) didn't build your character well enough for *combat*, or
3) should play on Hero difficulty (no judgment, weakling)

post your char and we'll give you feedback. yeah we'll ridicule you as well, that's how you know we care

edit: or maybe all 3 / a combination of
 

Pink Eye

Monk
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Space Refrigerator
I'm very into cock and ball torture
if you're constantly reloading to win combat, you:

1) are fighting something too difficult for you, or
2) didn't build your character well enough for *combat*, or
3) should play on Hero difficulty (no judgment, weakling)
Even with a weak build you shouldn't be bashing your head on the wall. Usually, if you're save scumming an effect or something in the combat; it means you're doing something really, really, wrong. As this is not how the combat is designed - contrary to all the complaints on it. Nearly everything has a rule, a consistency, in how it behaves. It's meant to be challenging but not bullshit random.
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,955
Is the codex still on the honeymoon with this shitgame?
I swear its the same with every god damn high profile rpg release, you can tell how people are going to react just going by the developer.

Hopefully its not long before the circle back to "Its dull and bland and theres nothing remotely creative to see here." but it feels like anyone with good taste is just not interested in posting as of late.
 

Lyre Mors

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
5,420
Is the codex still on the honeymoon with this shitgame?
I swear its the same with every god damn high profile rpg release, you can tell how people are going to react just going by the developer.

Hopefully its not long before the circle back to "Its dull and bland and theres nothing remotely creative to see here." but it feels like anyone with good taste is just not interested in posting as of late.
Eh, it's not groundbreaking, but it's a fun CRPG with a unique setting, which is something we rarely get these day. I think you're being a little too hard on it, honestly.
 

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,773
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
In AoD and from what I understand CS, hybrid characters are not really a thing.

After my first and now on my second playthrough I got the impression it's far more hybrid friendly, the main quest path is fairly easy on Underdog contrary to what I would expect after AoD. By that I mean the fights are easier than random shit you can walk into in optional quests. Sometimes the easiest option in the main quest might be just sneaking and despite never investing in the stealth it works.

Furthermore due to the level-by-use system, skill trainer NPCs and skill training tokens found across the game, it is not difficult to get a few levels in every skills. Finally your party members can do all the work in combat for your main character if he sucks, especially the tanking if he's a low HP character.

My first character was a 10 INT scientist gunslinger, tagged pistols, biotech, computers, electronics (later tagged lockpicking via the educated feat) and took mastermind as the heroic feat. Did bulk of the combat, especially by end of chapter 2 it started to get rather easy with 3 notable exceptions. Did some stealth sections despite not having any feats for it.

My second character is a 10 PER stealth/ninja/talker hybrid. Tagging only streetwise (I think I hit streetwise 8 already, just started chapter 3) as far as talker skills go I managed to get all other talkie skills to at least 5 (or maybe 6 now) and pass pretty much every diplomacy situation I had so far. There are maybe 2 or 3 in the game where I won't be able to do due to not enough charisma (have just 6). Combat is harder than with first character, but so far I managed the few fights I had to do due to the lack of a stealth alternative for them and without using stasis grenades even once, even killed the damn creeper in hydroponics which I didn't manage to with the first character (maybe because I didn't fully learn the combat mechanics then, also thought you can kill him in a later chapter).

In both cases I had 2 party members and only tagged combat skills on them.

Both of those are on underdog.
 
Last edited:

Darth Roxor

Rattus Iratus
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,879,029
Location
Djibouti
Take a second to explore a fairly straightforward UI and your time won't be wasted. But honestly if you're going to sit down to play an RPG, then you know what you're getting into.

my desire to 'explore' games goes down the more unappealing they are, and the first 2-3 hours of colon ship are S-tier unappealing

also to my defence, i was following AOD UI conventions and right clicking on the weapon pic, which only showed me 'standard/aimed head/burst', and given that my first gun was a flyapart smg with only burst, i assumed that more options like kneecapping are unavailable to shit-tier early weapons or something
 

Lyre Mors

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
5,420
The game could really use one more higher difficulty setting. I appreciate that it's not a reload simulator like AoD, but it can be a little too easy on Underdog with all the options available to the player.

my desire to 'explore' games goes down the more unappealing they are, and the first 2-3 hours of colon ship are S-tier unappealing

I'm not trying to convince you or anything, but that particular complaint is casual-tier shit. Just saying. Takes literally a minute in your first combat encounter to get a handle on the UI.
 

Sòren

Arcane
Joined
Aug 18, 2009
Messages
2,554
Is the codex still on the honeymoon with this shitgame?
I swear its the same with every god damn high profile rpg release, you can tell how people are going to react just going by the developer.

Hopefully its not long before the circle back to "Its dull and bland and theres nothing remotely creative to see here." but it feels like anyone with good taste is just not interested in posting as of late.

"high profile". we got 40 pages here, and that owlcat rubbish (i don't know if it is, and i don't care at the moment) has 270. what the hell are you talking about? people with good taste....i would love know who those are supposed to be here.

if you got criticism, post it, but spare me your nonsense "uga uga game sucks. me not like it, me smarti".
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,955
Is the codex still on the honeymoon with this shitgame?
I swear its the same with every god damn high profile rpg release, you can tell how people are going to react just going by the developer.

Hopefully its not long before the circle back to "Its dull and bland and theres nothing remotely creative to see here." but it feels like anyone with good taste is just not interested in posting as of late.

"high profile". we got 40 pages here, and that owlcat rubbish (i don't know if it is, and i don't care at the moment) has 270. what the hell are you talking about? people with good taste....i would love know who those are supposed to be here.

if you got criticism, post it, but spare me your nonsense "uga uga game sucks. me not like it, me smarti".
Owlcats shit actually gives us rpg mechanics with some depth, not this tripe. They, at the very least, give us a world worth exploring. Not this broken shit where you are compelled to explore because you know VD has put a limited amount of exp in the game and if you do not open a level 2 lock you may not reach level 6 by endgame, or it may mean hours of backtracking to get that bit of exp you need. This also affects your combat effectiveness, every time you do not put a bullet between someones eyes, you are growing weaker as the challenges in the game scale up.

I know ITS isnt a big budget studio, I am not expecting anything unreasonable, I am not expecting them to deliver kingmaker or bg3 production values. But I am expecting sound game design, I am expecting some depth in the characters I meet, I am expecting interesting mechanics to interact with, I am expecting at the very least an interesting setting.
 

lukaszek

the determinator
Patron
Joined
Jan 15, 2015
Messages
13,157
Is the codex still on the honeymoon with this shitgame?
I swear its the same with every god damn high profile rpg release, you can tell how people are going to react just going by the developer.

Hopefully its not long before the circle back to "Its dull and bland and theres nothing remotely creative to see here." but it feels like anyone with good taste is just not interested in posting as of late.
did you bother to read past few pages? very unprofessional of you
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,955
Is the codex still on the honeymoon with this shitgame?
I swear its the same with every god damn high profile rpg release, you can tell how people are going to react just going by the developer.

Hopefully its not long before the circle back to "Its dull and bland and theres nothing remotely creative to see here." but it feels like anyone with good taste is just not interested in posting as of late.
did you bother to read past few pages? very unprofessional of you
Read the first 10 and the past 2, should be enough.
Roxor is the solitary voice of reason, and I dont even like the cunt, ever since he said blaggards is good instead of merely ok we have been at war.
 

Sòren

Arcane
Joined
Aug 18, 2009
Messages
2,554
Is the codex still on the honeymoon with this shitgame?
I swear its the same with every god damn high profile rpg release, you can tell how people are going to react just going by the developer.

Hopefully its not long before the circle back to "Its dull and bland and theres nothing remotely creative to see here." but it feels like anyone with good taste is just not interested in posting as of late.

"high profile". we got 40 pages here, and that owlcat rubbish (i don't know if it is, and i don't care at the moment) has 270. what the hell are you talking about? people with good taste....i would love know who those are supposed to be here.

if you got criticism, post it, but spare me your nonsense "uga uga game sucks. me not like it, me smarti".
Owlcats shit actually gives us rpg mechanics with some depth, not this tripe. They, at the very least, give us a world worth exploring. Not this broken shit where you are compelled to explore because you know VD has put a limited amount of exp in the game and if you do not open a level 2 lock you may not reach level 6 by endgame, or it may mean hours of backtracking to get that bit of exp you need. This also affects your combat effectiveness, every time you do not put a bullet between someones eyes, you are growing weaker as the challenges in the game scale up.

I know ITS isnt a big budget studio, I am not expecting anything unreasonable, I am not expecting them to deliver kingmaker or bg3 production values. But I am expecting sound game design, I am expecting some depth in the characters I meet, I am expecting interesting mechanics to interact with, I am expecting at the very least an interesting setting.

the game doesn't require you to have any optimal build, you can finish it no matter what. it's just that you cannot do everything you wish to do. that's not unreasonable, is it? i mean, from my prespective ITS could have made it a lot more punishing, but when i see post like this (no disrespect, if you do not like the game design - fine!), i understand why they made certain choices to downgrade. the setting is up to taste. there are many interesting things about it, if you care.
 

Alienman

Retro-Fascist
Patron
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
18,172
Location
Mars
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
reloading
The game feels like a choice between constant reloading (combat) or walking sim (skillchecks) with little in between.
if you're constantly reloading to win combat, you:

1) are fighting something too difficult for you, or
2) didn't build your character well enough for *combat*, or
3) should play on Hero difficulty (no judgment, weakling)

post your char and we'll give you feedback. yeah we'll ridicule you as well, that's how you know we care

edit: or maybe all 3 / a combination of
Or you are not shotgunning dudes in the legs enough.
 

Pink Eye

Monk
Patron
Joined
Oct 10, 2019
Messages
6,195
Location
Space Refrigerator
I'm very into cock and ball torture
Not this broken shit where you are compelled to explore because you know VD has put a limited amount of exp in the game and if you do not open a level 2 lock you may not reach level 6 by endgame
You can tag the skill at character creation. Get two free levels into it. Then do the checks as it naturally comes up. The game doesn't force you to run around as a headless chicken trying to squeeze as much as you can for civics. You just play, explore, then do the checks as they come up. If you come across a hard check, you then leave it and come back later when you have higher skills from doing later contents. There is also skill tokens too which can give you civics experience. I myself managed to reach about level 7 in lockpicks with just a tag:
1qqcRjF.png


So it's far from being that rigid.
 

Darth Roxor

Rattus Iratus
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,879,029
Location
Djibouti
taking throat slitter and shanking everyone* in mercy's house was somewhat satisfying

you no mess with lo wang


*okay technically the last guy survived with 9 hp because i guess he was a little too upset to take down, but then it was just the matter of capping his ass
 

Jrpgfan

Erudite
Joined
Feb 7, 2016
Messages
2,109
X-Com Rip-Off Low-Fi Sci-Fi No-Magic Dystopian-Future Post-Apocalyptic Fallout-Inspired Master-Piece.

Con-Vince M-E Other-Wise?
Oh no! Iron Tower Studio is doomed now that the esteemed Gahbreeil, whose opinion is super important, called the game a X-COM ripoff!

Vault Dweller Elhoim try to convince him otherwise or just shut down the studio already, since there's no point in fighting for such a lost cause!

 

Gahbreeil

Scholar
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
1,025
Location
Asarlaíocht
Oh no! Iron Tower Studio is doomed now that the esteemed Gahbreeil, whose opinion is super important, called the game a X-COM ripoff!

Vault Dweller Elhoim try to convince him otherwise or just shut down the studio already, since there's no point in fighting for such a lost cause!

You misunderstood me, I did not say the game is bad. I hope it sells well as well. The point is, the sort of combat that I saw in Colony Ship, I first experienced when playing X-Com. The squares and units moving between is what I mean.

I'd say the User you have mentioned is doomed if he rests happy with compliments from simpletons like you. And you like Pokemon, don't you?
 

Jrpgfan

Erudite
Joined
Feb 7, 2016
Messages
2,109
Is the codex still on the honeymoon with this shitgame?
I swear its the same with every god damn high profile rpg release, you can tell how people are going to react just going by the developer.

Hopefully its not long before the circle back to "Its dull and bland and theres nothing remotely creative to see here." but it feels like anyone with good taste is just not interested in posting as of late.
did you bother to read past few pages? very unprofessional of you
Roxor is the solitary voice of reason, and I dont even like the cunt, ever since he said blaggards is good instead of merely ok we have been at war.
"I don't like that dude and I never agree with what he says but he's the only person in the world that agrees with me on this particular subject so he's a very reasonable person!"

""It Is No MeAsuRe of HeAlth tO Be WeLL AdJuStEd to a PrOfOuNdLy SiCk SoCiEtY"
 

Jrpgfan

Erudite
Joined
Feb 7, 2016
Messages
2,109
Oh no! Iron Tower Studio is doomed now that the esteemed Gahbreeil, whose opinion is super important, called the game a X-COM ripoff!

Vault Dweller Elhoim try to convince him otherwise or just shut down the studio already, since there's no point in fighting for such a lost cause!

And you like Pokemon, don't you?
I like your mom's ass when it's bouncing on my dick.
 

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