Game News Colony Ship RPG Update #1: Setting, Character System

[Zed]

Botany should be a skill if it takes place on a generation ship. Big-ass greenhouses generating oxygen, food etc.
Plants fucking rule. GO GREENS

 

[Infinitron]

Er, it would be unusual in a scifi game for the gods to be real. So at best you'd have a kind of condescending atheism of the "of course god isn't real, but those silly bible thumpers aren't that bad!" variety.

Unless Vault Dweller has some kind of "God is actually a powerful alien intelligence" plot in mind, which is...actually a lot like what Pillars did.

 

[Bubbles]

Botany should be a skill if it takes place on a generation ship. Big-ass greenhouses generating oxygen, food etc.
Plants fucking rule. GO GREENS

Yes. No plants, no buy.

 

[Excidium II]

Rotatable camera is already confirmed, and LOL @ 'normal people' . And fuck you for calling people without obsession about fixed camera a retards.

Too early to say.

Rotatable cameras very rarely work. See WL2 and DO:S, but, uh, also AoD. Constantly rotating and adjusting just to see things and being able to interact with stuff sux.
Say what you will about PoE and Underrail, but at least they were very comfortable to play.

Yes. Fixed camera or kill self. I guess it's harder for area designers to make nice maps when everything that's interactable has to face the same direction but it saves a lot of frustration when playing the game.

 

[Excidium II]

It would be unusual in a scifi game for the gods to be real. So at best you'd have a kind of condescending atheism of the "of course god isn't real, but those silly bible thumpers aren't that bad and some of their tenets make a lot of sense!" variety.

Unless Vault Dweller has some kind of "God is actually a powerful alien intelligence" plot in mind, which is...actually a lot like what Pillars did.

Maybe they won't explain it and ruin the whole thing with a cliche twist?

 

[Zed]

Rotatable camera is already confirmed, and LOL @ 'normal people' . And fuck you for calling people without obsession about fixed camera a retards.

Too early to say.

Rotatable cameras very rarely work. See WL2 and DO:S, but, uh, also AoD. Constantly rotating and adjusting just to see things and being able to interact with stuff sux.
Say what you will about PoE and Underrail, but at least they were very comfortable to play.

Yes. Fixed camera or kill self. I guess it's harder for area designers to make nice maps when everything that's interactable has to face the same direction but it saves a lot of frustration when playing the game.

With a fixed perspective you can hide useless background textures too, and focus lightning and "feel" from the same view the player will have.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Er, it would be unusual in a scifi game for the gods to be real. So at best you'd have a kind of condescending atheism of the "of course god isn't real, but those silly bible thumpers aren't that bad!" variety.

Unless Vault Dweller has some kind of "God is actually a powerful alien intelligence" plot in mind, which is...actually a lot like what Pillars did.

No such plot. For the Christian faction the focus will be on faith not whether or Jesus is real and coming to save all.

 

[Daedalos]

This GON B' GUD

Though, I am abit saddened that there's no metion of heavy weapons. I guess it doesn't fit the setting/technology/era

 

[MRY]

Vault Dweller Have you read Fallen Dragon? You might want to give it a look. It's far from a perfect book, but it has a reasonable (alternative) take on who would fund interstellar colonization, although I'm not sure if its premises can apply if you're far below light speed.

I did. Far from perfect but a great book when you're on vacation and have nothing to do.

I wonder whether I would've liked it more, or less, if I had read it as a kid. It balances almost exactly on the edge between being nerdy-kid-fantasy and being a subversion of nerdy-kid-fantasy, which is one reason why it works well as a guilty pleasure for a grown up nerd. :D

 

[likaq]

The whole point of recruitable companions is having characters with personalities and backgrounds that react to situations accordingly, I don't think living with whatever shitty stat distribution the dev came up with really matters much for this approach.

I can agree with that but having total control over their stats kinda makes recruitable companions less interesting.

 

[Excidium II]

This GON B' GUD

Though, I am abit saddened that there's no metion of heavy weapons. I guess it doesn't fit the setting/technology/era

Probably not a good idea to field rocket launchers inside a spaceship...

 

[Vault Dweller]

Rotatable camera is already confirmed, and LOL @ 'normal people' . And fuck you for calling people without obsession about fixed camera a retards.

Too early to say.

Rotatable cameras very rarely work. See WL2 and DO:S, but, uh, also AoD. Constantly rotating and adjusting just to see things and being able to interact with stuff sux.
Say what you will about PoE and Underrail, but they were very comfortable to play.

I actually prefer rotatable cameras. Worked great in Silent Storm, iirc. Its absence bothered me in Pillars.

 

[Daedalos]

This GON B' GUD

Though, I am abit saddened that there's no metion of heavy weapons. I guess it doesn't fit the setting/technology/era

Probably not a good to field rocket launchers inside a spaceship...

Yeah, that's what I was thinkin'.. but you know, accidents happen! And imma heavy weapons kind o' guy. What about a minigun that doesn't shoot armor piercing rounds?
Or a flamethrower? Gaitlin Laser? Pulse laser?

 

[Infinitron]

Maybe they won't explain it and ruin the whole thing with a cliche twist?

The point is that the default assumption of standard human-centric science fiction is that there's no need to explain it. It's implicitly atheistic already, God is dead, yadda yadda. Of course, Vault Dweller might be trying to do something different:

No such plot. For the Christian faction the focus will be on faith not whether or Jesus is real and coming to save all.

And who knows, maybe something will be explained.

 

[Vault Dweller]

This GON B' GUD

Though, I am abit saddened that there's no metion of heavy weapons. I guess it doesn't fit the setting/technology/era

Probably not a good to field rocket launchers inside a spaceship...

Yeah, that's what I was thinkin'.. but you know, accidents happen! And imma heavy weapons kind o' guy. What about a minigun that doesn't shoot armor piercing rounds?
Or a flamethrower? Gaitlin Laser? Pulse laser?

There are energy cannons that were mounted on mechs. Grab one and go nuts until you run out of cells.

 

[Excidium II]

The whole point of recruitable companions is having characters with personalities and backgrounds that react to situations accordingly, I don't think living with whatever shitty stat distribution the dev came up with really matters much for this approach.

I can agree with that but having total control over their stats kinda makes recruitable companions less interesting.

Well come to think of it, it's pointless to worry about shitty companion stats since feedback will result in characters being very optimized anyway.

 

[Zarniwoop]

So is the projected release date for this 2022?

And yet, VD will have released TWO (three?) games before Grimoire

Also, the sun will have died, taking the earth with it. Our far-future AI descendants will know of our our crude, futile attempts at cosmology the same way we know of the first calendars, and measure time-units in ways our languages can't even express. They will know of the worthless element once known as "gold", but have no concept of "babies" or any other messy biological reproduction. But even they won't live to see Grimoire.

 

[Shadenuat]

The number and names of stats and skills don't really define gameplay. It's how they are used that matters.

Can't really agree. You're using them to describe what player would be doing in game and what focus lies on (combat, social, investigation), like verbs in adventure games.
Like Zed's comment, if it's generation ship, there are generation ship problems, and there should be skills to solve these problems.

If that doesn't mean anything to you, at least think about style points

I actually prefer rotatable cameras. Worked great in Silent Storm, iirc. Its absence bothered me in Pillars.

I doubt your CSG would feature 3d multilevel destructability that looks and plays better with rotatable camera?

 

[likaq]

Rotatable cameras very rarely work. See WL2 and DO:S, but, uh, also AoD. Constantly rotating and adjusting just to see things and being able to interact with stuff sux.
Say what you will about PoE and Underrail, but they were very comfortable to play.

Yes rarely but there are some games with good camera :

games powered by silent storm engine, Evil Islands, Dungeon siege 1 and 2, ufo afterlight ( shitty game, sure, but camera was great ).


about camera in csg:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...ates-and-future-projects.104230/#post-4187349

 

[Excidium II]

God at least design with an optimal viewpoint that can be reset with a key.

 

[Zarniwoop]

"God is actually a powerful alien intelligence" plot in mind, which is...actually a lot like what Pillars did.

So, Stargate SG-1?

inb4 for super-inane explanation of "no totally not like that" but then says exactly what I said.

 

[Lurker King]

ITS defense force is fast.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Lack of camera rotation in an isometric game is now an issue.

Good priorities and intelligent design confirmed.

 

[Daedalos]

Why can't we have both rotatable and fixed camera angles/views?

Everybody wins

 

[serch]

I hope you opt to put genetic engineering in (MY SPASE MARINHES). And cancer, lots of cancer.