Game News Titan Outpost Released

[Trans-Financial-Man]

Autism aside, has anyone actually played the game and can tell me if it's any good?

 

[Urthor]

Considering the developer posted here saying it really needs a patch I'm going to take "let's wait for the patch and patient gamer this" for 100 Jim

It's sad though because you more or less wasted all of the potential audience by releasing it with a garbage variety of bugs and a UI that's not up to scratch, even when it's fixed less people will give it a chance

 

[Grauken]

I don't think so, it's niche as shit already and not a lot of other games that do something similar, so if you want a hard scifi RPG, you're probably willing to wait.

I definitely try out if its patched, just to see how conflict resolution works

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

No matter how fucked the game is pre patch it can't be nearly as bad as No Man's Sky after the Beyond update. I am astounded by it. Don't worry guys. At least you're aren't Dodgy Sean.

 

[Grauken]

No matter how fucked the game is pre patch it can't be nearly as bad as No Man's Sky after the Beyond update. I am astounded by it. Don't worry guys. At least you're aren't Dodgy Sean.

Why is there new drama around No Man's Sky?

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

No matter how fucked the game is pre patch it can't be nearly as bad as No Man's Sky after the Beyond update. I am astounded by it. Don't worry guys. At least you're aren't Dodgy Sean.

Why is there new drama around No Man's Sky?

Game's fucked. Beyond should just be called Beyond Fucked. With one expansion, Hello Games managed to wipe away all their credibility and the narrative the shill media spun about No Man's Sky "redeeming itself." The two most hyped features, VR and Destiny style Multiplayer are completely broken and cause huge framedrops, CTDs and complete world breaking glitches. It's becoming really clear the expansion was shat out the door rushed because nothing is working right and a bunch of the added features simply do not function. It's not drama. The game is just fucked. More fucked than Titan Outpost for sure.

 

[Ismaul]

With one expansion, Hello Games managed to wipe away all their credibility

They had credibility?

 

[MF]

The patch is done! Changelog is on Steam.

Even when it's fixed less people will give it a chance

I hope not. We'll see.

As for the age-old question. Is it an RPG if there is no combat system? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say yes, but I'm biased.

 

[MF]

It's still got a lot of issues though, so be warned. It needs another patch or two. I really should have gone Early Access first, but what's done is done.

 

[Agesilaus]

I got sucked into Underrail Expeditions when this game was initially delayed, so I am holding off until tea-brewing is implemented. If I can't brew a pot of tea, but I can brew a pot of coffee, then I just don't know how I feel about this game.

 

[Skdursh]

Ouch, a genuine ad hominem, must hurt when you can't say anything substantial

Like name a cRPG without any combat

"The ad hominem attack is a logical fallacy associated with trying to undermine the opponent's arguments by personal attacks, through attacking their character or skill level, etc. The ad hominem attack uses an accepted fact about a person to undermine their credibility despite the lack of causal connection between the two parts of the argument."

So, you're admitting you're retarded then? Because if not, then I was just being facetious and you're still wrong, idiot.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

I'm going to play this fucker today. I don't care. Fuck it.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

I'm enjoying it so far. The lack of rotation and zoom inside the base sucks though. It feels cramped.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

The loading times when you leave the base are atrocious. I can't make that goddamn hidropnics. I'm gonna die.

 

[MF]

The loading times when you leave the base are atrocious. I can't make that goddamn hidropnics. I'm gonna die.

The loading time should be much better after the first time you go outside during a session. It gets cached. I'll try optimising it more. The base is supposed to feel cramped, but maybe I'll add a zoom option to where you can see the entire command center.

Spoiler

You can get food from the Hesiod when it arrives, that will give you some more time to get the hydroponics online

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

MF, the batteries are running out too fast. The game keeps crashing in some loading attempts. Do I have to wait how many days to have the hydroponics ready? I checked on the table and was already marked as under construction.

 

[MF]

MF, the batteries are running out too fast. The game keeps crashing in some loading attempts. Do I have to wait how many days to have the hydroponics ready? I checked on the table and was already marked as under construction.

Sorry, I missed this post while working on the patches. You're not supposed to be able to walk a lot early in the game and batteries run out fast. Upgrade the suit and build spares. It takes a while to construct things. If your construction skill is low, a hydroponics bay will take about two weeks.

If you pass time in the timelapse panel, it will tell you when it's finished. The construction station will also give you an estimate on when something will be done.

The game shouldn't ever crash during loading, though. Hard crashes never happened for the testers and I've only had 1 report so far. Is it while loading the game or some area? How much RAM do you have?

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Sorry, I missed this post while working on the patches. You're not supposed to be able to walk a lot early in the game and batteries run out fast. Upgrade the suit and build spares. It takes a while to construct things. If your construction skill is low, a hydroponics bay will take about two weeks.

If you pass time in the timelapse panel, it will tell you when it's finished. The construction station will also give you an estimate on when something will be done.

I thought the game would look like an amateur project designed on a toaster, but I’m glad to be wrong. The game is packed with content and engrossing systems. It has the look and feel of a sci-fi movie from the 70s. Really cool. My only complaint is with the presentation. I understand that the player will eventually realise how the mechanics work, but the very first quest involves building something you have no clue how to build. The presentation is opaque. When I noticed it would take days to finish the hydroponics I thought the game was buggy or I made something wrong. The natural thing to do in any cRPG is to explore the world, especially if you have a hoover waiting for you to use. Beginners will have no idea that they shouldn’t explore or that they should sleep the whole week in order to continue the quest. Maybe you can give them the first hydroponics? I’m afraid that players will feel put off by this autistic intro. I’m only insisting on it because I know I will be rewarded with more content later on.

The game shouldn't ever crash during loading, though. Hard crashes never happened for the testers and I've only had 1 report so far. Is it while loading the game or some area? How much RAM do you have?

I didn't have this problem after the first patch.

 

[MF]

I thought the game would look like an amateur project designed on a toaster, but I’m glad to be wrong. The game is packed with content and engrossing systems. It has the look and feel of a sci-fi movie from the 70s. Really cool.

Thanks! Really glad to hear that is coming across.

My only complaint is with the presentation. I’m afraid that players will feel put off by this autistic intro.

Yes. I see your point. The idea was to have IPMS walk you through all the systems, but the tutorial expected the player to actually follow it. Skipping any part at the wrong time was so buggy that I scrapped it. Now, every system has question mark buttons and help screens instead, but that's a lot of reading. Are the help screens clear enough? It's a lot to digest.

I want to redo the IPMS tutorial in a more robust and clear way, but I'm not sure if that's the way to go. Having an in-game character show you the ropes without breaking the fourth wall is always going to leave something to be desired in the clarity department.

The first hydroponics bay is free, in fact. The grafting table itself provides 1 food unit, which is enough to barely sustain the player character, but you need to keep it powered. If it's been unpowered for too long, you need to reseed it. The decision the player has to make is whether to power on the construction station or laboratory instead of the hydroponics before the generator gets an upgrade.

 

[cvv]

Codex making games better instead of sperging devs out of the forum, what a sight.

A non-combat RPG, interesting. Is it the first? Can't recall any RPG where combat wasn't even an option. I assume you can level your chars by other means? There IS a character development system, right?

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Yes. I see your point. The idea was to have IPMS walk you through all the systems, but the tutorial expected the player to actually follow it. Skipping any part at the wrong time was so buggy that I scrapped it. Now, every system has question mark buttons and help screens instead, but that's a lot of reading. Are the help screens clear enough? It's a lot to digest.

I want to redo the IPMS tutorial in a more robust and clear way, but I'm not sure if that's the way to go. Having an in-game character show you the ropes without breaking the fourth wall is always going to leave something to be desired in the clarity department.

The first hydroponics bay is free, in fact. The grafting table itself provides 1 food unit, which is enough to barely sustain the player character, but you need to keep it powered. If it's been unpowered for too long, you need to reseed it. The decision the player has to make is whether to power on the construction station or laboratory instead of the hydroponics before the generator gets an upgrade.

The way I see it is that since you are on a moon, resources are scarce and any mistake will be fatal. But at the same time, it seems that the game is trying to convince me to go out, explore the gameworld and get some shit done. Because otherwise I will be stuck in the base like a chump, with nothing to do. That’s why the mechanics seem so underwhelming from the get go. You receive mixed messages. The quests keep pointing me to different locations, the game allows me to move to said locations, but this ruins my chances of survival because the batteries are running out so fast. It doesn’t look like you can sleep and wait for the hydroponics to be built. The player has no way of guessing that he can survive that long without doing some actual shit. What I’m trying to say is that the player has no way of guessing how he is supposed to behave because of the setting and the mechanics. That’s why I said that the first hydroponics should be free. You said it was free, but it need to be built first. It should be ready and the player would only need to deliver it. The crash, the dialogue with other characters, and that robot that talks like R2-D2 are nicely done, but once you move from that in order to do some actual quests, the player is completely lost. Maybe you can implement some encounters when you run out of batteries so that players feel more engaged?

 

[MF]

You said it was free, but it need to be built first.

No, the table in the command center (where you can see your food status, seed diversity etc.) also counts as a hydroponic bay. It yields 1 food as long as Hydroponics is powered and there is an active seed. That is mentioned in the help screen. Maybe I'll tie in the systems explanation tutorial to the Home Improvement quest.

You're right. The game needs to ease the player into exploration a little more. There are already two encounters for when you run out of batteries, but I'll add one that triggers when you run out for the first time.

Spoiler

It's not true that going out ruins your chances for survival. The game is completely non-linear and if you get food from Phil -or contractors later on- or run straight to the Chinese, you can survive without ever building anything. You can even skip the entire methane mining aspect of the game and still access half of the endings. In fact, one of the endings requires you to actively sabotage it. I want to prevent railroading the player.

I assume you can level your chars by other means? There IS a character development system, right?

Yes. You have stats, skills, traits, NPC relations and faction relations, buffs and debuffs. The works. You get experience points from exploring, building and researching stuff, and for doing quests. Levelling up gets you skill points and perks.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

i like the cut of this devs gib

watching with interest

 

[Hazelnut]

This looks really very interesting indeed. Probably wait for the next QoL patch to drop before trying it, but kudos on removing combat from an RPG. Intriguing idea given how many 'RPGs' are just combat all the time.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

No, the table in the command center (where you can see your food status, seed diversity etc.) also counts as a hydroponic bay. It yields 1 food as long as Hydroponics is powered and there is an active seed. That is mentioned in the help screen. Maybe I'll tie in the systems explanation tutorial to the Home Improvement quest.

I got that. My point was that you need to build another hydroponics and depending on your construction skill it can take ridiculous amounts of time. Since you have a quest right off of the bat in which you need to implement a hydroponics in another location, the player will be lead to believe it is just a matter of quick implementation. It is confusing.