Colony Ship Early Access Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Vault Dweller]

It feels as though the main conflict in the pit (Braxton vs Jonas) is kinda under represented. You don't really know anything about the factions prior to making decisions of what to do and who to help – basically "Hey, do you help this gang leader who wants to let people do whatever while taxing them, or do you want to help the Regulators, who will make things a bit more lawful (without expanding on just what "more lawful" is even supposed to mean)?" That's really too little to go on to make any sort of informed decision. Indeed, it's a bit little to even make one care about the conflict, as what one sees is basically two bands of thugs that he knows nothing about, battling it out. Could there be a way to, for example, chat with each leader between the quests or something to get them to tell you just what sort of agenda they actually have?

How do you picture this? "Hi, I'm from The Daily News, here to ask you a few questions about your plans for the town?" From another thread:

Yes, you're pressured into making a decision but no matter what you tell Braxton you can change your opinion. The town is presented as lawless and even though you aren't attacked on sight, it's clear that it's not a place ruled by law. Thus unless you run straight to Jonas, you can play for a bit and form an opinion about the town, not the parties. If you decide that the town's fine the way it is, then you side with Jonas against the interloper. If you decide that change is overdue, you side with Braxton.
...
There's no easy way to provide this info. Quests? If we start the game with you working for Jonas, your perspective will be biased by default. If we start you as neutral and let you talk to some people first... Well, even if we add out-of-the-blue questions like "what do you think about Jonas and Braxton?", the answers will differ greatly. ... look at the town and ask yourself if it's going in the right direction. It's not about Jonas or Braxton, it's about the town.

 

[Marat]

look at the town and ask yourself if it's going in the right direction.

That's exactly what I'm on about. It doesn't seem like the town is really going in any direction in particular. In Teron you got a taste of scheming nobles squabbling over prewar ruins, kidnapping bandits, criminals on the streets, contract assassinations and shenanigans of a certain "merchant". It imparted on you just how decrepit it all has become and allowed you to place factions in the context of that. There is very little visible strife in the Pit on the other hand. Maybe if merchants complained that Jonas' (or " Jonas' ") tax collectors were bleeding them dry and they can't go on like that, or if you discover Braxton's deception he'll make his pitch saying "Brotherhood will try to take over any day now and Jonas does nothing". And some random encounters: thugs depriving a scavenger of his hard-won loot or maybe the guy at the very beginning, the one that wants to go back to the Habitat, could tell you he's tired of looking over his shoulder all the time - to show the player freedom isn't necessarily glamourous. And another one where Regulators ruthlessly gun someone down - is indiscriminate violence an answer to Pit's problems? Some event or a conversation to show that Brotherhood is on the move and why it taking over would be a bad thing would go a long way - it would show that the situation in the Pit needs to be resolved rather expeditiously. Since people of the Pit (including the player) don't like being ordered around, does it really make a difference to them if Braxton or Brotherhood take over?

"Hi, I'm from The Daily News, here to ask you a few questions about your plans for the town?"

Similarly to AoD, Pit should be confronted with some problem or an immediate threat that affects people and player would choose a side based on how those sides want to tackle this problem. As is, the threat of a BoL takeover feels somewhat vague and it makes it difficult to relate to it in any way. I'm thinking: isn't scavenging the lifeblood of Pit's economy? The very reason it exists as a settlement in the first place? Why not have some characters give their perspectives on how various factions would impact this business? "If the Brotherhood rolls in, there will be to many new scavs and the well will soon run dry" or maybe: "Brotherhood wants to take over, but we should keep our slice of heaven to ourselves" and then Braxton goes "I'm the only one who can stop BoL from taking over" and Jonas: "Braxton will be just as bad as the Brotherhood. We should try our luck on our own. Maybe with Mo on our side we'll be able to keep our independence." Immediately, player gets some idea what's going on and how people he's supposed to side with want to approach it. Right now it's a little like B:"I should be in charge" J:"Nu-uh". Neither of those two relates much in their conversations to the town and it's fate. They're about defeating the other and nothing else. None of them says so much as "the other guy will ruin this town". It doesn't quite feel like the fate of the town is at stake and if it isn't, why would player get involved?

 

[Thal]

look at the town and ask yourself if it's going in the right direction.

That's exactly what I'm on about. It doesn't seem like the town is really going in any direction in particular. In Teron you got a taste of scheming nobles squabbling over prewar ruins, kidnapping bandits, criminals on the streets, contract assassinations and shenanigans of a certain "merchant"

I'd also like to add that it's easier to form an opinion of Teron, because we know what crumbling walls look like vs real walls and the game is called the Age of Decadence. Whereas what we see in the Pit is more or less what we expect from a generation ship after a mutiny. Or rather, we have no real alternative to compare to. Is the town this way due Jonas, or is it just that way?

The presentation of Jonas is better because he rules the town (so he stands for its current state), but Regulators should be fleshed out more. Not with Daily News, but a quests (or at least one more quest) where you run into them, and see the different perspectives.

 

[Pink Eye]

Just want to add. It would be great if companions bantered more about the Pit. It doesn't have to be a dialogue interaction thing. It could be a little text thing that pops up. You already have a couple for when you're engaged against the enemy. Such as, main character will say "Fuck" when they're taking damage. Why not outfit a couple of bants in there too? Have Faythe say "Man, this place has gone to shit thanks to Jonas" - when you're exploring camptown. Or have her say some bants when in the regulator's HQ. Here's an example of what I mean:

Spoiler

It'd add a bit more life to the companions. Unlike Age of Decadence, companions are a big part of the experience. Leaning into that aspect will add more to the game, in my opinion.

 

[Thal]

My game bugged in Hydroponics.

1) I chose Faythe sneak past the first frog encounter, but noticed that she was wearing armor that prevented her from doing so without triggering a red tile
2) reloaded, took off the armor and sneaked to the ladder
3) Her character model disappeared, and not even loading the game returned it.
4) Starting the game again and reloading the game returned the model. Tried to reproduce it, but couldn't.

 

[thesecret1]

How do you picture this? "Hi, I'm from The Daily News, here to ask you a few questions about your plans for the town?"

How about:
"You want me to kill Jonas? For you? Why? What would you do differently?"
[Braxton expands on what he dislikes about the town and what he would change, you can press him for more info, etc.]

To be honest, something like this sort of exchange is what I'd actually expect. This dude is asking you to kill the town mayor, he should be trying to sell you the idea, sell you on why Jonas needs to be removed and why Braxton is the best thing for the town. He needs something from you, not the other way around, he should be giving you the propaganda to get you to buy into his shit. Vice versa for Jonas. Also, people around the town ought to say something about the state of affairs. In Teron, you had everyone talking about Teron and the world in general, be it the innkeeper or the graveyard keeper. You had the preacher in the square offer his take on the situation, you had information provided to you about the various organization (all you had to do was hover over their names on your character sheet to get a quick rundown on who they are), and you could infer a lot about the town through environmental storytelling. You saw the crime, sure, but you also saw things like the crumbling walls inhabited by squatters, showing extreme poverty, you saw the better district where the affluent lived in their slowly crumbling mansions, you saw the decay of society itself by having assassins and thieves operate in the open as regular guilds, and of course you also saw the many criminals crucified by the imperial guard. All of these things gave you information about Teron, about the world, and about the factions.

In the Pit, on the other hand, I don't really see much aside from lawlessness. There's some attempts at portraying poverty with all the garbage food being offered, but it's a far cry from the absolute misery you can see in Teron. Everyone, and I really mean everyone, comes off as a gangster of some sort, and there's little in the way of portraying the factions or the people therein.

 

[thesecret1]

I think it's visible even in things like items and shops. In AoD, you have shit like various dresses that nobles wear or rags of the poor, whereas in Colony Ship, there are no clothes other than armour. In AoD, when you entered a market, you saw many stalls that offered things of no interest to an adventurer – food stalls, spice stalls, stalls selling tableware, cloth stalls, etc. In Colony Ship, you see a lot of stalls with guns and armour and grenades and stuff (many of them for such a small town, in fact), yet you only spot a couple bars and food stalls, nothing else. That just feeds into the feeling that Pit is only inhabited by gangsters who make a living through murder and theft and spend their free time kicking back shots in a bar. There's not really a sense that people have regular lives in the Pit. This then further enhances the problem – why should I care about whether Gangsterville is being run by Gang A or Gang B? A lot of the law vs freedom conflict you're trying to portray is being lost if set in an environment where you feel everyone is a criminal

 

[Twiglard]

How about:
"You want me to kill Jonas? For you? Why? What would you do differently?"
[Braxton expands on what he dislikes about the town and what he would change, you can press him for more info, etc.]

To be honest, something like this sort of exchange is what I'd actually expect. This dude is asking you to kill the town mayor, he should be trying to sell you the idea, sell you on why Jonas needs to be removed and why Braxton is the best thing for the town.

Another problem is that your first real interaction with Braxton is having a forced dialogue start as door opens. With Antidas, there were a few quests and he fit right in the town map, as well as geopolitics. These two guys having a disagreement is perfunctory, as if a stub waiting to be filled with a real plotline.

The quests are disconnected from one another with no rhyme or reason as to world building and storytelling.

 

[Savecummer]

I find it hilarious that there is nothing ever wrong in VD country.
HoW dO yOu PiCtUrE tHiS???? "Hi, I'm from The Daily News, here to ask you a few questions about your plans for the town?"
No, retard, not like that.
Couple of years later, he'll bend the knee and say outrageous stuff like AOD being linear after you pick a path.
No wait, he said 'the players perceived it as linear'

 

[Luckmann]

It feels as though the main conflict in the pit (Braxton vs Jonas) is kinda under represented. You don't really know anything about the factions prior to making decisions of what to do and who to help – basically "Hey, do you help this gang leader who wants to let people do whatever while taxing them, or do you want to help the Regulators, who will make things a bit more lawful (without expanding on just what "more lawful" is even supposed to mean)?" That's really too little to go on to make any sort of informed decision. Indeed, it's a bit little to even make one care about the conflict, as what one sees is basically two bands of thugs that he knows nothing about, battling it out. Could there be a way to, for example, chat with each leader between the quests or something to get them to tell you just what sort of agenda they actually have?

Like I said earlier, it would help a lot just being sent on an errand to Jonas prior to being sent to Evan (and subsequently meeting Braxton). But ideally, I feel like the conflict shouldn't really start off and start involving you until you've gone away and come back or something like that.

 

[lukaszek]

Against all odds, the strongest character I had was SMG guy with 10 PER, 5 CON and all Graze feats. Basically I aimed to maximise the amount of grazes and, surprisingly, it worked. With two short bursts per round, The guy mowed through enemies to the point where I had to stop, in order to let Evans get some exp too.

werent bullets a problem? On my pistolero run I ran out. I know you were not playing solo but still smg should eat through ammo quickly. Did you disable reaction attacks?

 

[Alpharius]

How do you picture this? "Hi, I'm from The Daily News, here to ask you a few questions about your plans for the town?"

How about:
"You want me to kill Jonas? For you? Why? What would you do differently?"
[Braxton expands on what he dislikes about the town and what he would change, you can press him for more info, etc.]

The only difference that he cares about would ofc be that Braxton would be in charge instead of Jonas. Its not like Jonas and Braxton are taking part in mayor election campaign or something. And the main character should be aware of this seeing as he lives in this town.

And who is the main character to question him? Idk it seems to me its kinda the same as asking Carrinas about how he would improve life in Teron and why the main character should support him (which would have probably ended in crucifixion if such a dialogue option was present in AoD).

 

[thesecret1]

The only difference that he cares about would ofc be that Braxton is in charge instead of Jonas. Its not like Jonas and Braxton are taking part in mayor election campaign or something. And the main character should be aware of this seeing as he lives in this town.

And who is the main character to question him? Idk it seems to me its kinda the same as asking Carrinas about how he would improve life in Teron and why the main character should support him (which would have probably ended in crucifixion if such a dialogue option was present in AoD).

It's cool that the main character is aware because he lives in the town, but the player is not aware, because he isn't. Right now, Braxton goes "Hey kid, wanna kill the mayor?" and I'm not supposed to expect more of an explanation? Of course I'd like to question him. And Braxton isn't Carrinas, his position doesn't really allow him to just kill me on the spot without taking major damage to his own reputation (which he needs because it actually sorta is a mayor election campaign – piss too many people off and they'll band up and shoot you dead.) Moreover, in AoD, the player joins the Imperial Guard of his own volition. In Colony Ship, Braxton is trying to recruit you to do something for him.

 

[Thal]

Against all odds, the strongest character I had was SMG guy with 10 PER, 5 CON and all Graze feats. Basically I aimed to maximise the amount of grazes and, surprisingly, it worked. With two short bursts per round, The guy mowed through enemies to the point where I had to stop, in order to let Evans get some exp too.

werent bullets a problem? On my pistolero run I ran out. I know you were not playing solo but still smg should eat through ammo quickly. Did you disable reaction attacks?

I can't exactly recall, which means that money certainly wasn't a big problem. I may have spent money on bullets, but I could also buy everything else I wanted. I relied on meta knowledge on my playthroughs, which meant that I didn't buy stuff such as disruptor fields, and that may have saved me some cash. (I noticed that I had to spend a lot of cash to by shells for my shotgun dude though.)

I kept reaction attacks on, which definitely boosted his killing power.

Edit: I also had speced Faythe and Evans with Melee, which eliminated money issue for them. Also, since the guy killed enemies so quickly, I may also have been able to secure their bullets for myself. I had 200 9mm bullets in the end, 500 creds, and had stopped selling gear.

 

[Savecummer]

a random thought that entered my mind while i was throwing a ball:

the 'heavily adjusted' (default) rng in colon shit is actually HURTING casuals, noobs and steamtards (the """people""" who cry about missing twice in a row)
because VD had the idiotic idea to apply the effect to enemies too...

imagine a noob fightin 1vs1 vs an npc with both having about 50 cth -> here the adjustment doesnt factor in the outcomes over large enough nr of repetitions
but as soon as the npc has a little bit more cth than the pc, the adjustment start to favor the npc...
imagine a noob fighting spike and bulldozer if both PC and NPC have 50 cth -> same shit, more npcs means the adjustment favors the npcs
pc chances to savescum and out-reload the encounter are down with the adjustment...
he cant even get better gear through reloads to try to offset his gameplay inability
and in the game, the cth values are stacked against the pc too lol

the problem: missing in a row makes faggots cry
solution: bury em roffles!!!!111

another greate design success!

 

[lukaszek]

yeah rng is always upsetting people, whatever form it takes

 

[Goral]

An extensive and well-written review by Pladio: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197974545088/recommended/648410/

Edit:
lol
https://steamcommunity.com/id/mattesonmike/recommended/648410/

Posting a 'Read before you buy' comment on their community hub AFTER releasing the game and initial sales occurred is irresponsible. Also selling an RPG with only one hard difficulty setting without making that clear up front is also something that should have been done.
The game looked promising but after wasting 3 hours without surviving more than 3 encounters (saving everywhere) I can't report much more - nor will I be in the future.
trust their Read before buying - they have made it unplayable.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198041400335/recommended/648410/

No romance options.
Also I wasn't able to fully review this game because I had taken a 40 minute phone call and walked away leaving this game running in the background so I was unable to play longer without being unable to refund the game.

Please leave tears over a negative review below.

Edit 2:
But this one takes the cake I think: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004683481/recommended/648410/

I have never written a review before. I am an avid gamer, and do not like trashing developer's work. I do find myself needing to express my frustration in this case. Colony Ship seemed to me the kind of game I would enjoy. It looked very promising. I have never been so frustrated and upset playing a game before. I even looked to see what comments were being posted about it. Many people complained that the game was too difficult. I found that the developers had the audacity to post "You’ll be outnumbered and outgunned, so you’ll have to figure out how to even the odds or avoid fights you can't win. If that's not your idea of having a good time, you should either make a non-combat character or find another game." This is exactly why I do not recommend this game! I enjoy challenging games, but the game is ridiculous. I have tried over and over again in different scenarios to try and figure out a way of defeating the enemy, only to get upset because its impossible to succeed. It's the Kobayashi Maru Test of games! I play a game to enjoy myself. I do not want to waste my time getting upset by a game whose developers want to pound their chests by telling customers who pay money to play their game, that their game is hard, and if you don't like it, don't play it. I gave this game every opportunity. Played it for 10 hours, and sincerely, I would like to get my money back.

 

[Takamori]

We already had this discussion on Battle Brothers thread.

Also appealing to the lowest common denominator in video games you will get a really low quality product, the only thing asked from the person playing this game is to read the talent row. It doesn't require quick reflexes or any advanced sequence of pattern learning.

 

[Brancaleone]

We already had this discussion on Battle Brothers thread.

Also appealing to the lowest common denominator in video games you will get a really low quality product, the only thing asked from the person playing this game is to read the talent row. It doesn't require quick reflexes or any advanced sequence of pattern learning.

Asking players to read, the cheek of it.

 

[kryminator]

Just saw the shit on GOG, insta-bought it obviously, first game ever bought by me while being still in development. I even logged into codex to show off. Hope it will be out on Thursday.

 

[Pladio]

Using dialogue options that are ultimately pointless in outcome, but fluffy, was once a sin...
I dunno why you are talking about the process of the dialogue when I specifically aim at the outcome.
The ultimate check in CS dialogue is the dispo threshold, the check in AOD is on individual node.
I expected the argument that a certain dispo threshold allows to fail 1 node and still successeed and the response would have been:
if the dispo threshold is lower, what this functionally means in a comparison to AOD, than the equivalent AOD check threshold would be lower. Same outcome dialogue outcome. You just fail at the different places.

What this does is it makes Charisma more valuable. You could fail with one character who has 4 Charisma, but not with one who has 8 Charisma. It also allows you to use a wider range of skills, because the first checks sometimes result in you levelling up a skill which then gives more disposition points. You get more Disposition if you succeed than if you pass a yellow check.

 

[Pladio]

infinite money through ammo trick fix now makes it hard to buy ammo through drag n drop and using slider. When you try to get whole stock you get message that you dont have enough money. When you click like crazy to get full stack you can trade fine

You can control click to have a pop-up to select #.

 

[Momock]

I liked the first chapter of the game, most of all the new persusasion system (or how the old was reformed, I guess) and the potential of the stealth system (it's quite broken for now), and after some using to, even the learn by use thing. But... I don't understand how it works at times. I'm talking about the "combat" skills: critical strike, evasion and armor.

For example why my untagged armor skill goes up while my evasion taggued skill stays the same? Is it because I'm wearing armor that gives me malus, so armor goes up until the malus is erased, and when it's done it will switch back to raising evasion? (in this case it's fine but should be explained) Or is it that if I get hit armor goes up while if it's a miss evasion goes up? And critical strike goes up only when doing criticals? (in this case it's randomisation of leveling bullshit like in old games, and it's pure cancer that asks you to redo combat until guetting lucky like in Fire Emblem).

That's my bigguest issue with the game, aside from that it's very promising.

 

[Pladio]

Évasion only goes up if you evade enemy hits. It then only shows up after killing the enemy unit.

 

[Momock]

Okay, good to know. So if I want my evasion to go up it's not enough to tag it? I guess I have to throw some evasion feat right at the beginning fot it to start working, because latter in the game if it's still low I won't be able to evade anything anymore, unless I reload fights until miraculously dodging. That's the worst design ever, I hope they change this crap! I don't know... maybe just put a learning point value for each enemy and distribute it evenly among the three combat skills of each participant of the combat. Tags will do the rest...