So this is interesting. I love seeing new players play this game.
First things first, Vince is not resistant to feedback, on the contrary, he does listen and read feedback.
Here are examples:
Originally Colony Ship didn't have an easy mode, now it does, with additional parameters to customize the game. Colony Ship also had new skill tokens placed around areas to help hybrid/civic builds. New feats like Skill Monkey and implant upgrades that help civic/hybrid builds were also put into the game. This is also not to mention the amount of non-combat quests, specific loot, that you can get if you avoid combat. For combat, Death Timer was implemented to give companions extra turns of survival before getting killed. The Death Timer also gives an exclusive feat which gives some positive bonuses like an extra few turns of Death Timer and some evasion to help you survive longer - you can reach high levels of evasion if you optimize around it:
There was also major reworks during the Early Access period to improve combat, such as the Con changes that gave your companions some extra HP - Faythe used to start with 35 HPs now she gets 40 HPs:
Before
After
Attacks of opportunity were also changed so you no longer got shot at for every single square you moved - now its only one attack of opportunity for the whole movement, instead of multiple AoOs for every movement. Gadgets also underwent changes to make combat easier; for instance you can now use shield gadget with melee, and shield gadget is very strong due to the amount of DR bonuses it gives; stealth gadget was changed to be deterministic instead of RNG; upgrades for gadgets were also streamlined too. This is also not to mention the exhaustive tweaks, changes, and modifications that the game received post release. For example armor pieces being streamlined, as well as certain pieces getting buffed. 'Nades getting buffed and streamlined so no matter the tier they always have an effect on enemies - unless the enemy is 100% immune. There was also the matter of psionics and mind worms which were modified to be more easy to deal with, psionics especially, since they used to be oppressive back then.
Then you have encounters where certain enemies were nerfed and or changed to be easier to deal with - I can't remember specifics but I remember some encounters having their armor pieces changed with lesser pieces.
The point in all of this is that the game has undergone tons of changes *because* of feedback.
Here's the thing: throughout the entire process there were many discussions, many arguments, and general back and forth when it came to Colony Ship; this is also not mentioning the internal dialogue the team had with each other. Though changes were always ran through the community first, to get our opinions, so the developers can figure things out. One of my favorite memories of Early Access period was when VD opened a thread asking for how the enemy AI should be - it was very surprising with how diverse opinions were on the matter. I wanted it to be like Chalice 2 where enemy AI was smart and punishing, other community members didn't want that and made strong arguments against it; VD ran the opinions and took it from there.
Transparency and Honesty.
This is how VD conducted himself in regards to Colony Ship throughout its entire development. He treated the community with respect and as a result we all gave him honest critical feedback. Some of my changes made it into the game, some didn't - I always wanted this game to be as hard as Dungeon Rats with enemy AI as smart as Chalice 2, that's my dream game. I also wanted my favorite companion, Faythe, to be super strong. Obviously the game didn't turn out like that. By far and large, changes made things easier and more streamlined, since making a super hardcore game like that wouldn't be good for the community at large.
Now for the problem at hand:
Why does it feel like the game is so hard then; why is Evan's first encounter so difficult, what's going on; is it those damned 'sycophants' that are to blame. Well you need to understand the game's nuance. The game expects you to at least read a bit about the systems before engaging with it. For starters, you'll always be given an initiative bonus dialogue which ensures you go first, this teaches you that going first is very important, so don't dump your initiative stat. You'll also see that the enemy has no good armor on leg and no head protection. This is important because hitting an enemy with an aimed leg attack type incurs a -20 evasion penalty. Evans who already has a 60% To-Hit now goes to 80%+:
With the new accuracy bonuses you have two options: go for an aimed arm type attack to lessen enemy accuracy or go for the head for big damage. If you don't have enough AP I recommend aimed arm attack, if you do have the AP go for the aimed head. No matter what you choose the enemy is going to die all the same:
Also if the enemy goes to cover, as they sometimes like to do that, flank them from the other side. Don't shoot at them at the front if the cover is at the front, as it gives major penalties to To-Hit. Just go the side and flank 'em. Or get into melee to deny their cover bonuses. If you played right you should beat this without reloading once:
^I popped into an old save to do this so I'm not talking out of my butt here. I beat this without reloading once.
Suffice to say, this encounter is really easy. It's designed to give you a free companion without much trouble. if you seriously struggled with this then share your build so VD can look at it and maybe consider changing the encounter to sate you - there is precedent for this, back in Early Access some encounters were changed if a good build struggled on it.
First things first, Vince is not resistant to feedback, on the contrary, he does listen and read feedback.
Here are examples:
Originally Colony Ship didn't have an easy mode, now it does, with additional parameters to customize the game. Colony Ship also had new skill tokens placed around areas to help hybrid/civic builds. New feats like Skill Monkey and implant upgrades that help civic/hybrid builds were also put into the game. This is also not to mention the amount of non-combat quests, specific loot, that you can get if you avoid combat. For combat, Death Timer was implemented to give companions extra turns of survival before getting killed. The Death Timer also gives an exclusive feat which gives some positive bonuses like an extra few turns of Death Timer and some evasion to help you survive longer - you can reach high levels of evasion if you optimize around it:
There was also major reworks during the Early Access period to improve combat, such as the Con changes that gave your companions some extra HP - Faythe used to start with 35 HPs now she gets 40 HPs:
Before
After
Attacks of opportunity were also changed so you no longer got shot at for every single square you moved - now its only one attack of opportunity for the whole movement, instead of multiple AoOs for every movement. Gadgets also underwent changes to make combat easier; for instance you can now use shield gadget with melee, and shield gadget is very strong due to the amount of DR bonuses it gives; stealth gadget was changed to be deterministic instead of RNG; upgrades for gadgets were also streamlined too. This is also not to mention the exhaustive tweaks, changes, and modifications that the game received post release. For example armor pieces being streamlined, as well as certain pieces getting buffed. 'Nades getting buffed and streamlined so no matter the tier they always have an effect on enemies - unless the enemy is 100% immune. There was also the matter of psionics and mind worms which were modified to be more easy to deal with, psionics especially, since they used to be oppressive back then.
Then you have encounters where certain enemies were nerfed and or changed to be easier to deal with - I can't remember specifics but I remember some encounters having their armor pieces changed with lesser pieces.
The point in all of this is that the game has undergone tons of changes *because* of feedback.
Here's the thing: throughout the entire process there were many discussions, many arguments, and general back and forth when it came to Colony Ship; this is also not mentioning the internal dialogue the team had with each other. Though changes were always ran through the community first, to get our opinions, so the developers can figure things out. One of my favorite memories of Early Access period was when VD opened a thread asking for how the enemy AI should be - it was very surprising with how diverse opinions were on the matter. I wanted it to be like Chalice 2 where enemy AI was smart and punishing, other community members didn't want that and made strong arguments against it; VD ran the opinions and took it from there.
Transparency and Honesty.
This is how VD conducted himself in regards to Colony Ship throughout its entire development. He treated the community with respect and as a result we all gave him honest critical feedback. Some of my changes made it into the game, some didn't - I always wanted this game to be as hard as Dungeon Rats with enemy AI as smart as Chalice 2, that's my dream game. I also wanted my favorite companion, Faythe, to be super strong. Obviously the game didn't turn out like that. By far and large, changes made things easier and more streamlined, since making a super hardcore game like that wouldn't be good for the community at large.
Now for the problem at hand:
Why does it feel like the game is so hard then; why is Evan's first encounter so difficult, what's going on; is it those damned 'sycophants' that are to blame. Well you need to understand the game's nuance. The game expects you to at least read a bit about the systems before engaging with it. For starters, you'll always be given an initiative bonus dialogue which ensures you go first, this teaches you that going first is very important, so don't dump your initiative stat. You'll also see that the enemy has no good armor on leg and no head protection. This is important because hitting an enemy with an aimed leg attack type incurs a -20 evasion penalty. Evans who already has a 60% To-Hit now goes to 80%+:
With the new accuracy bonuses you have two options: go for an aimed arm type attack to lessen enemy accuracy or go for the head for big damage. If you don't have enough AP I recommend aimed arm attack, if you do have the AP go for the aimed head. No matter what you choose the enemy is going to die all the same:
Also if the enemy goes to cover, as they sometimes like to do that, flank them from the other side. Don't shoot at them at the front if the cover is at the front, as it gives major penalties to To-Hit. Just go the side and flank 'em. Or get into melee to deny their cover bonuses. If you played right you should beat this without reloading once:
^I popped into an old save to do this so I'm not talking out of my butt here. I beat this without reloading once.
Suffice to say, this encounter is really easy. It's designed to give you a free companion without much trouble. if you seriously struggled with this then share your build so VD can look at it and maybe consider changing the encounter to sate you - there is precedent for this, back in Early Access some encounters were changed if a good build struggled on it.
