Game News Colony Ship RPG Update #12: The Protectors' Enclave

[Ismaul]

Artwork looks really fucking great!

 

[hivemind]

fuck off paid shill

 

[Maculo]

I was hoping for an update on the House Ecclesiastes, but this is still good. The faction archetypes are growing on me. Initially, I was turned off by the religious part, but I think this presents a nice spread of factions/ideas.

 

[Junmarko]

Day one purchase

The premise is so refreshingly original. Really psyched for this.

 

[Daedalos]

Amazing with every update. Cannot wait for this game to be released, even if its far off. The premise alone gets me fucked as fuck for a cRPG.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Updated the first post (added the Brotherhood).

 

[Lurker King]

The Habitat – The Brotherhood of Liberty

The Brotherhood was formed to liberate the people from the iron shackles of the Ship Authority. Though their first sally -which the fossils of the old world denigrate with the term "mutiny"- failed to completely achieve this aim, the Brotherhood was successful in establishing themselves as a power to be reckoned with. More importantly, their ideals of liberty and freedom are now discussed everywhere.

The Brotherhood's initially pure goal, to free the enslaved wherever they may be, has unfortunately been sullied by the practical concerns of democracy. If the Brotherhood had had access to the older histories they would have realized that democracies beget their own factions, factions which cannot be put down with violence for now they are within. The Executive Council was also forced to consider issues like the right to vote, and whether it should be granted freely to all, or earned through service to the state. The first generation earned their rights rebelling against the tyrants, whereas the youth of today have forgotten even the names of those heroes. Easily swayed by rhetoric and bribed with cheap comforts, these layabouts could hardly be less concerned with such abstractions as liberty and universal suffrage.

To bring freedom to the Ship entire must involve war, and no war may be won without sacrifice, nor may battles be managed by committee. The unwillingness to back high ideals with bloodshed is, as far as the Council is concerned, the reason for the recent losses against the Protectors. Yet any attempt to limit majority rule must be interpreted as a retreat from the ideals upon which the Brotherhood's very identity is based. If every decision, even those which mean death to some of the Brotherhood's own citizens, must first be approved by a majority, how is it possible even to start?

The Brotherhood's mindset is that of a group under siege that must remain vigilant and stand ready to repel the invaders. Their government building is not a tall and proud spire (that can be brought down) but a bunker-like structure. Turtle vs Eagle.

Unlike the Protectors who carry the torch of the centuries old Mission, holding it sacrosanct, the Brotherhood's ideology is far less stable. What started as an anarchist uprising driven by the desire to free the people (whether they wanted or not) was slowly transformed into a different form of tyranny - that of the majority. Hard won freedom had to give way to security and the great struggle against the Protectors. Some might even argue that the Protectors and the Brotherhood are two sides of the same coin and question the wisdom of the mutineers who replaced one authoritative state with another.

 

[Infinitron]

Yo dawg, I herd u like updates so I updated my update so you can update your update

 

[EnthalpyFlow]

I can barely keep it in my pants. Who's the concept artist? This is just amazing. Congratulations Vault Dweller.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Yo dawg, I herd u like updates so I updated my update so you can update your update

*updated my update*

read it in TNO's voice

 

[tormund]

Vault Dweller
I can't help but wonder, even though I never saw this mentioned in the official thread (I never cease to be disappointed in this place): are you taking any inspiration from Wolfe's Long Sun quartet?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/288132.Litany_of_the_Long_Sun
I couldn't shake that feeling off me ever since I've read first info about this game.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Vault Dweller
I can't help but wonder, even though I never saw this mentioned in the official thread (I never cease to be disappointed in this place): are you taking any inspiration from Wolfe's Long Sun quartet?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/288132.Litany_of_the_Long_Sun
I couldn't shake that feeling off me ever since I've read first info about this game.

No. I've read the books, of course, but our direction is very different.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Added the third faction.

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7387.0.html

 

[Infinitron]

The Habitat - The Church of the Elect (the Garden of Eden district)

As inevitably happens in dark and challenging times, some citizens turn to God for reassurance, the promise of an end to pain and hunger. Or failing an end, at least a purpose.

The Church of the Elect rejected both the Protectors of the Mission and the Brotherhood of Liberty as worldly fools distracted by politics and their own egos. Teaching their adherents that they were chosen by God, the Church frames the journey of the Ship as a centuries-long test of faith. We all face a series of difficult trials, yes, but with a very definite end.

When the Ship arrives at her destination, Judgement Day awaits every citizen. The righteous will be welcomed into the Promised Land of Alpha Centauri-4, while the unrepentant will be returned to the Hell from which we fled -Earth- to suffer for all eternity.

Led by the Chaplain-General, the Church of the Elect is a militant organization. While Christ was undoubtedly a man of peace, what he preached on Earth does not strictly apply in the void of space. Extraordinary challenges require exceptional measures, for even Jesus can't do much for an unarmed man.

The Church represents militant Christianity as no other kind would have lasted long against the Protectors whose God is the Mission or the Brotherhood that sees God as yet another master. As far as the Church is concerned, both the Protectors and the Brotherhood as living proof that men who don't follow the teaching of Jesus Christ to the letter are bound to get lost. It's obvious that the Ship won't arrive to the Promised Land until everyone follows the same guiding light, thus it's the Church's holy duty to save the Mission and land the Ship.

 

[tormund]

Finally, we are properly introduced to game's villains. Suitably ominous visual design, too.

 

[Aenra]

Do not fuck this up please.. reaaaaaaaally really looking forward to it; whenever that is, don't give a shit. Many Thursdays 'till i'm dead and buried, so you guys take your sweet time.

Also, do (re)consider DLCs. No, no, don't give me your side, let me give you mine, lol.
You know how often it is i play a fucking game and get to enjoy the dialogues? The story? You know how often it is i play a fucking game and actually wonder if the monkey writing the dialogue actually meant what i'm thinking is actually implied? You guessed it, fucking never rarely is how often. So IF this gets to be what i'm hoping it will be, yes, i would appreciate me some extras. Because it's going to be another fucking decade until the next game written by proper humans comes along; so the more you can extend yours the happier i'll be as a consumer. Gamer. Retard. Whatever.

And we know that games like this one are small by necessiity, don't we? So really, lol, reconsider. Expansion, DLC, don't care how you tag it

 

[Severian Silk]

Will the new engine still be isometric? How will you handle enclosed spaces?

 

[Jaesun]

These factions are fantastic! Love this setting.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Will the new engine still be isometric? How will you handle enclosed spaces?

Yes. Transparent walls, most likely.

 

[EnthalpyFlow]

I've been suffering from vital anguish due to not being able to give you money right now for this.

 

[Esquilax]

Finally, we are properly introduced to game's villains. Suitably ominous visual design, too.

Not sure I'd outright call them the villains. I expect Vince and company to handle this faction with the appropriate level of nuance beyond "religion is dum".

 

[Vault Dweller]

No faction is a villain and religion isn't dumb otherwise it wouldn't have survived for so long. Like the description says, some men need to believe in higher power and nothing will ever change that.

 

[Aenra]

some men need to believe in higher power and nothing will ever change that.

Sir, yessir. God first, Country, Family. And ain't nothing will ever change that, yessir.

Back when (crusades):

Today:

Just to illustrate, couldn't resist. Am in no way affiliated with the game or the developers. Terms and conditions always apply. May the Lord spare you all, for we usually don't.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Religion is for dumb people

 

[Aenra]

Religion is for dumb people

uh huh
Organized, central systems of belief are the very reason some nations have got to where they are, with the history and cultural wealth they can be proud of. Now, i can understand why it's easy for someone living where you live, calling family the kind of subhumans people you call family to think otherwise, but isn't life unfair? Survival of the fittest.
Can also understand how tempting it is to fall back to generalizations such as religion=opium and conveniently neglect all other sociological aspects, a very part of our own nature and condition, as they are indeed impossible to assail, what with millennia of progress behind us and despite it all. But lacking depth, even surface will do..

I'm just a dumb redneck though, what would i know.