Titan Outpost Release Thread

[MF]

So update is possible next week? I can wait for it then, thanks. Also that coffee stat bug is probably connected to this one.

Update is online. I'm not certain if the fix will work on saves where that fatigue level/debuff mismatch already occurred. It probably will but I didn't save when I reproduced that bug. If it doesn't for you just send your save.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Re:

Spoiler

The stranded rover northwest of the outpost (or I suppose east(?) by in-game coordinates, but northwest from the default map configuration). I used hacking on the exposed dashboard and got this:

Is this supposed to let me open the passcode-locked door that you access by clicking anywhere on the vehicle? Because it doesn't. Does it open something else, or maybe nothing at all?

 

[MF]

Is this supposed to let me open the passcode-locked door that you access by clicking anywhere on the vehicle? Because it doesn't. Does it open something else, or maybe nothing at all?

[/spoiler]

It opens the door in the back of the cabin. You can click on that after this message. Leads to the cargo area, which is basically just a container.

 

[The_Mask]

So... I've restarted playing this game after I had purchased it initially and I couldn't understand anything from the log. Where I was supposed to go. It was just general tips. Which, normally, would be totally fine, but as I said, it really hampers if you discontinue playing for a while.

I suggest maybe (in your future games) a small window where you could read the dialogue that sparked the quest. I don't need to be spoon fed, or have characters in endless dialogue loops, telling me what I should already be knowing, but it would help to have the script saved somewhere.

Either that or I'm gonna start taking notes.

 

[The_Mask]

Ok. I seem to be stupid. I don't know where to find the Pu that Karen mentioned. Also... I think I've explored home base pretty much everywhere to the point where this happened to me. What am I missing? Help.

 

[MF]

Yeah, having the questlog reference parts of a relevant conversation is an often requested feature. It's not something I can build into this design, but I'm allowing for it in my next game.

Ok. I seem to be stupid. I don't know where to find the Pu that Karen mentioned. Also... I think I've explored home base pretty much everywhere to the point where this happened to me. What am I missing? Help.

Looks like you found a way to go out of bounds. If you click on the exit button it'll return to base automatically. If you manually control it again later it will be back at the entrance.

You need to go straight ahead, left when you see the lander, past the space elevator platform, take a right turn and go straight until you see a path open up on the left side. When you reach that, it's a twisting gulley you can follow all the way to the end, where the plutonium is.

I hope that makes sense, I'm not at home and don't have access to my development machine today so this crude drawing will have to do.

 

[The_Mask]

Chinese Outpost:

1. I was able to glitch my way from the roof, into the back room with the Pu. Took it. Not sure if it was intended or I just found a back way, but if there is a back way to getting to it without having to hack the door, then I suggest you leave it in.
Rewards exploration and autism.

2. If you head towards the upper left hand of the map, a yellow film shows at the bottom left of your screen. I don't think it impacts gameplay, but it sure does look funny. (On further exploration, same thing happens if you go top right, at the bottom left corner of the screen)

3. I figured out that pressing TAB highlights a lot of things on the map.

4. I got a reward from the Chinese for taking care of their little throat problem. I am getting a message once I enter the Rover that I should collect some stuff from the landing pad, but I think I've explored all of the Chinese outpost map, and I see no landing pad, or can I highlight any lootable container.
I speculate that by "landing pad" the game means "the outpost landing pad", and so I will head back, but at the time of writing it's all very confusing.

 

[The_Mask]

I found the reward outside my Outpost. Speculation on point. Phrasing still vague though.

 

[MF]

Chinese Outpost:

1. I was able to glitch my way from the roof, into the back room with the Pu. Took it. Not sure if it was intended or I just found a back way, but if there is a back way to getting to it without having to hack the door, then I suggest you leave it in.
Rewards exploration and autism.

2. If you head towards the upper left hand of the map, a yellow film shows at the bottom left of your screen. I don't think it impacts gameplay, but it sure does look funny. (On further exploration, same thing happens if you go top right, at the bottom left corner of the screen)

3. I figured out that pressing TAB highlights a lot of things on the map.

4. I got a reward from the Chinese for taking care of their little throat problem. I am getting a message once I enter the Rover that I should collect some stuff from the landing pad, but I think I've explored all of the Chinese outpost map, and I see no landing pad, or can I highlight any lootable container.
I speculate that by "landing pad" the game means "the outpost landing pad", and so I will head back, but at the time of writing it's all very confusing.

1. There is a back way through the roof, but it's hidden from pathfinding. I guess that could have custom animation or at least some kind of message stating what happened.
2. That's the camera culling the terrain that clips through its view. The background color is orange. It happens there because the POV in Tuxing Liu is truly isometric. I agree that it looks weird, I'll change it.
3. Yes, that's a brand new feature added in the latest update. It was a popular request. It doesn't show where the searchable areas are, just the things you can interact with directly.
4. That's the same message you get whenever you enter the Rover with an uncollected shipment at your Outpost. Usually you'd have seen it at least once already and it would be obvious, but if you're the conscientious type who picks up shipments right away it'll be the first time. Ling tells you where it will land, but I see your point. I'll be sure to add the word 'Outpost' to the generic message and change the wording to avoid this type of confusion.

Thanks for the feedback, by the way. I want to reward players who go into every nook and cranny with special loot and encounters, not with a less polished experience.

 

[The_Mask]

While talking to TALT, if I choose to ask for additional crew members, and pick the negotiate button (on the side or on screen) the dialogue simply ends. Initiated dialogue in rover outside the huge circle. CHA 4. Negotiation 0. Saving and reloading changed nothing.

Seems like a bug, but can't be sure.

 

[The_Mask]

This reminds me of EA stuff... please... don't do this kind of stuff to me. lol

 

[MF]

While talking to TALT, if I choose to ask for additional crew members, and pick the negotiate button (on the side or on screen) the dialogue simply ends. Initiated dialogue in rover outside the huge circle. CHA 4. Negotiation 0. Saving and reloading changed nothing.

Seems like a bug, but can't be sure.

You started this game in an earlier version, right? That one should be fixed, but not all dialogue fixes propagate to earlier savegames. Not an issue for your playthrough because that just means you wouldn't have been able to initiate the negotiation in your case.

About the search.

Spoiler

The level 2 search tier for the balloon debris at the TSSM site yields nothing and it's the only search tier in the entire game that does so. I'll add 1 perfunctory mineral. Level 3 does have more scrap. It's the rover debris there that has the most interesting level 3 stuff.

 

[Technomancer]

It doesn't show where the searchable areas are

That scanner thingy that you can craft should show it though, or add like +1m detection range or something, please.

 

[MF]

That scanner thingy that you can craft should show it though, or add like +1m detection range or something, please.

Already does that, as it give +1 awareness for the purpose of searching. The searchable areas increase in size with a small awareness modifier. Having something causing TAB to work for searchable areas is a cool idea, though. I didn't put it in because it would make finding them trivial.

 

[Technomancer]

because it would make finding them trivial.

Trivial sure, but not knowing if you missed something is just annoying, esp. when you need resources badly. Maybe you could make that thing show how many points of interest are left in the area? So you don't know where they are but you do know when you are finished or not.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Sounds too metagamey tbh

 

[MF]

because it would make finding them trivial.

Trivial sure, but not knowing if you missed something is just annoying, esp. when you need resources badly. Maybe you could make that thing show how many points of interest are left in the area? So you don't know where they are but you do know when you are finished or not.

Hadn't considered FOMO. I think a counter is too meta. I'll add a new tech, Rover spectrum analysis modification or something, that allows you to see the searchable areas. I've decided on a soft feature lock on new updates and want to limit myself to just fixes, but this is something I can easily add that wouldn't trivialize looking for them.

 

[Sranchammer]

Add in some steamy sex animations and this makes my top 5!

 

[The_Mask]

You started this game in an earlier version, right? That one should be fixed, but not all dialogue fixes propagate to earlier savegames. Not an issue for your playthrough because that just means you wouldn't have been able to initiate the negotiation in your case.

I thought Steam would update my game to latest iteration automatically. It's fine. I'll just continue this playthrough, and for the next I'll just reinstall the game. Having too much fun, and I'm at the point where I am stuck in an outpost with 2 women. I can't just end now.

 

[MF]

Add in some steamy sex animations and this makes my top 5!

Funny story. Actress who did Val had a lot of fun doing all the moans for the fight, realized what was going on and ran with it. It's enough to do the steamiest of scenes and I almost included it just because.

 

[MF]

I thought Steam would update my game to latest iteration automatically.

It should and it probably did, but I meant that part of the dialogue state is stored in your savegame and if the character was generated with an earlier version, that dialogue exit trigger is stored right along with it. Like I said, it won't really change anything for you in this case.

Having too much fun, and I'm at the point where I am stuck in an outpost with 2 women. I can't just end now.

Well, you know what they say. Time to get the Full House achievement.

 

[Technomancer]

I almost included it just because.

Post the files once your drive starts to die or something, maybe someone will do a mod!

Spoiler

 

[Optimist]

Decided to grab this one after stumbling on a Let's Play here on Codex - I love the themes, the soundtrack seems to be great, from what I heard of it, and the graphics are serviceable. The game does a good job of giving you constant low-level anxiety about doing something that might just accidentally kill you. I'll definitely be going deeper into this one after Christmas.

 

[TNO]

I also stumbled on thanks to the Codex GOTY list, which gave this a very high average score but few raters.

This game is fantastic and it is criminal it has so far had a fairly limited audience. I sincerely hope it takes off - not least because that could spur the developer on into either adding more content (the game definitely isn't incomplete, but I finished it wanting more and the setting seems naturally extensible) or further projects like this. I hope to write a review when my time becomes less scarce, but in the meanwhile:

A very short/incomplete list of its merits:

• Well thought out and interesting hard sci-fi setting.
• It has this nice sense of 'realism' and heft throughout: the challenges, choices, consequences all seem logical.
• Good characterization and writing without the sense of 'trying to hard'.
• Impressive and innovative dialog/negotiation system.
• Great interactivity and 'quest design' - often giving you different ways to solve a problem which manage both to satisfy different character builds and are also plausible and realistic.
• Blending a lot of gameplay elements together deftly to give different flavours (e.g. some base building, resource management, exploration, minigames) without any of them overstaying their welcome.
• Choice and consequences up the wazoo: the developer should be highly commended for having a lot of content branches which don't get railroaded back on the same path: more realism is a lot more valuable than making sure the player can see everything 'first time'.

Some other comments and suggestions to MF from a playthough and a half (I'll spoiler all of it just in case, and apologies in advance if these miss the mark - I suspect there's a lot of depth I haven't experienced yet).

Spoiler

Character building: I'm totally fine with a singleplayer RPG (especially gunning for realism) not to be perfectly balanced (if you're stranded in a partly functioning space colony, some skills and abilities might just be much more important than others, but I noticed:

• INT seems a killer stat as you are typically skill point limited and maxing int gives you +3 skill points. In comparison CHA/AWR/PHYS seem much less important as skill checks > ability checks and their passives seem very occasionally useful.
• Logistics doesn't seem all that handy a skill - I don't think I saw m/any non-methane applications, and even for methane it can be substituted for just by having a lot of resources (more later). It seems much less bang for your buck than exploration or hacking.
• Similarly, I don't think there's lots of gating for science or construction: I think lower science locks out some handy perks and some research projects, but I think construction can basically build anything but it just takes more time. As you have plenty of time in game this doesn't seem a big deal.

Difficulty: Contra maybe some comments on steam (maybe earlier versions) I found the game on the easier side - it was still very enjoyable, but once I got the hang of the mechanics I never really felt I was 'fighting to survive', even in the early game.

• It seems the main ways to get killed (e.g. freezing, staving, asphyxiation) are through the player making silly mistakes (or, for the first and only time I died, under-appreciating how seriously the game took the setting - "who cares about the dialog box opening about freezing, I'm sure it will just give me a debuff for a while" etc.) So long as you respect your suit battery, keep Ox gen and hydroponics always powered (and maybe don't pick a fight with someone with a gun when you are unarmed) you seem pretty safe.
• It seems fairly easy to snowball the resource management issues away. The main resources seem to be polymers, money, minerals and power. Prioritising polymer crackers early (+ the double yield tech) solves the first problem (and hey, points for realism: additive manufacturing + hydrocarbon everywhere should = ez plastics), money is fairly easy with the computer quest, minerals are fairly cheap to buy until you get passive mineral income from base buddies, and early quest rewards + the science rewards means power can outpace all the things you could possibly want to power after the first month. (Food is fairly trivial once you have enough of the first 4, and methane likewise - and optional anyway).
• Fatigue/morale never really posed a problem - I don't think I was ever 'on the clock', so getting some sleep always seemed the better option (which I never got punished for), ditto throwing a few hours into leisure once in a while.
• I don't think 'optimized powergaming' is what the game should be catering to, but as it stands the resource constraints are pretty easy to surmount for new players who've done some resource management in other games (e.g. I ended up well ahead of the resource curve in my first playthrough without any meta-game knowledge). It also shafts logistics, as I could just build as many drones and tanks as I needed to service the lakes '1-1' so didn't miss being unable to use my drones more efficiently (maybe late-late game logistics would let me cycle tanks faster than letting drones idle with their tanks at the lank, but this feels very marginal for many skill points).
• Maybe some more events could help increase a sense of danger and hostile environment - maybe a risk of a suit breach meaning you have to dash to the rover even on full battery, maybe some rover breakdowns which kill power/internal environment meaning you need to improvise survival until rescue arrives, etc. Likewise perhaps some dynamic resource challenges in the base to give more of the early game trade-offs of 'can I afford to power down hydro for another day of research?' Ditto some more timed objectives/dangers to stretch the fatigue/morale system.

UI:

• I never found something I could equip in the 'torso' or 'left hand' of my cold suit. Maybe I just missed them.
• I feel a couple of 'quality of life things' in the interface would be letting you 'process' items in the outpost rather than your inventory, and some 'auto charge' for when you return to base with a drained battery. Currently charging a drained suit battery has you go through 3-4 menus, so I often forgot/didn't bother.
• Possibly some more tool-tips/tutorial could help - it took me many hours to realize there was a free camera option.

QA

• Generally minor and occasional (the 'worst' was when contextual interactions sometimes stopped working - e.g. walking over an exploration node but not getting any pop-up) which was easily fixed by f5-f9). Sometimes my mission log would not reflect my quest status (e.g. saying I had yet to complete things I did) but the quests themselves worked fine).
• Almost certain this was a unity issue, but on entering the chinese base for the first time my frame rate dropped surprising low for my fairly-good gaming rig (the rest of the game ran at 60fps lockstep on max settings)
• Perhaps the most useful/reproducible bug I found was if you ask Carl/Karen to get the other one on the line, it seems to reset their dialogue (e.g. you could tell Carl what happened to William again)

 

[MF]

Thanks. Always happy to hear some kind words. Glad to hear you enjoyed the game.

That's a solid disquisition and you make some valid points. The game did get easier over time and adding some of the QoL features changed the difficulty curve. There are some randomized dangers like an atmospheric leak in the Outpost, which almost no one has seen so I need to make it more likely to happen, and there are some late game events and quests that keep things interesting if you decide to play to the time limit.

Though I try to limit myself to fixes when it comes to updating the game these days, I do have a few tweaks in mind and things I still want to add that tie in with your observations.

The logistics skill isn't very sexy at face value, but it does apply bonuses to almost everything. It's kind of like the Luck stat in Fallout in that way.

The torso slot is used

Spoiler

For the powered utility belt.

. The other hand slot is for using the pickaxe when you're carrying something else. Come to think of it, you never actually get to see it in the slot because players no longer have to manually equip the pickaxe.

The camera button has a tooltip and is prominently placed above the toolbar arrow. You can change its hotkey in the settings menu. It's also mentioned in the help screens. I'm not sure what else to do there besides adding it to the tutorial which I don't really want to touch at this point.

I'll get the QA points fixed. Tuxing Liu is more taxing on the system than other areas because it has a lot going on. I optimized the hell out of it, but I'll see if I can squeeze it some more.

I am working on my next game, called The Jovian System. There's a thread about it in this subforum and I'll post more on it soon.