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

[Tsubutai]

So the Habitat...? A massive place with only a modest amount of stuff to do. I hope more side quests will be added later on. Kinda wished for another NPC companion too, a fourth pre-ECLSS companion would be nice. Jed's awful stat spread annoys me and I wish I could replace him sooner.

Yeah, the devs are aware of the problem and are planning to add more Habitat content in future updates. I think Jed's stats are workable - not *great*, and 7 CHA kind of locks you into taking Sarge as one of his feats to get any value from it, but he can be a decent meatshield once you give him a synthetic heart and a motor cortex.

Recoil control is implemented but needs to be rebalanced imo since the accuracy bonus from a point of PER outweighs the recoil-reducing effect of STR, so it's always better for a ranged character to put points into PER unless they want to take one of the STR-gated feats.

 

[Pink Eye]

thus allowing us to train Faythe in an environment in which she doesn't get insta gibbed.

That sounds like a good suggestion. Easy encounters for early companions to train on. Will mitigate the feeling of having to juggle encounters.

 

[Eyestabber]

Was gonna EDIT but then nobody would read it: another question: is the extra XP from INT also applied to SP gained from skill usage or is it just character XP? Also, are weapon feats...kinda trap? Oh, and my pet peeve of the day:

Are you a boy or a girl a Rifle or an SMG???

 

[Elhoim]

Was gonna EDIT but then nobody would read it: another question: is the extra XP from INT also applied to SP gained from skill usage or is it just character XP? Also, are weapon feats...kinda trap?

Int is character XP. Why do you consider them kinda trap?

 

[Elhoim]

So the Habitat...? A massive place with only a modest amount of stuff to do. I hope more side quests will be added later on. Kinda wished for another NPC companion too, a fourth pre-ECLSS companion would be nice. Jed's awful stat spread annoys me and I wish I could replace him sooner.

Yeah, the devs are aware of the problem and are planning to add more Habitat content in future updates. I think Jed's stats are workable - not *great*, and 7 CHA kind of locks you into taking Sarge as one of his feats to get any value from it, but he can be a decent meatshield once you give him a synthetic heart and a motor cortex.

Recoil control is implemented but needs to be rebalanced imo since the accuracy bonus from a point of PER outweighs the recoil-reducing effect of STR, so it's always better for a ranged character to put points into PER unless they want to take one of the STR-gated feats.

Yes, we will be tweaking that in the systems update.

 

[Pink Eye]

weapon feats...kinda trap?

I don't think so. I think they're fine in context that you spend tag on the associated weapon skill in order to get the benefits. Blunt Feat where you get bonus penetration is very good, gets better and better with more levels, for instance.

 

[Eyestabber]

Eh...I think even Educated can outperform some of the stinkers, namely:

Gladiator/butcher: reaction in general is unreliable, but melee reaction is terrible.
Gunfighter: who cares about grazes, 0 damage is about as good as missing.
Sharpshooter: might actually be good, what does "aimed + 10" actually mean? +10 THC but ONLY for aimed attacks?
Pistolero: the problem with reactions is that you need to: a) hope an enemy will move AND b) reaction will trigger AND c) the reaction shot will hit AND d) the hit, being a measly snap, actually deals any damage. See, that's too damn unreliable compared to, say, a flashbang. Not to mention banking on reactions means you're letting enemies take turns, which runs counter to the overall "alpha strike" philosophy that is the clear winner currently. My last character couldn't beat the detroit gang, but my new party obliterated everyone turn 3. The difference? High initiative. The best defense is making sure the AI won't get its turn.

Melee weapon feats are generally very good and the other feats are usable for sure, but something like Second Wind and Quick Draw outclass most weapon feats quite easily.

Another thing I should mentions is Jed. IIRC he didn't use to start with Charger, but now he does. This is bad as it kinda pigeonholes the player into building him for melee since Charger is not very useful as a shotgunner, but vital as melee. That and the fact that shotguns are bad in general.

 

[Pink Eye]

Reactions are a pretty complicated subject. The mechanic can be pretty consistent if you build around it. See Faythe's reaction getting triggered a bunch of time in this encounter:

Spoiler

The issue though is that they're using snap shot/fast attack modifier and thus the graze damage isn't anything to write home about.

 

[Tsubutai]

Yeah, sharpshooter is +10 accuracy on aimed ranged attacks and +10 penetration on all ranged attacks, it's one of the strongest ranged feats. Pistolero looks worse than it is early on because the early game pistols are weak. Once you get the Colt in the Habitat, pistol reaction shots become decent.

 

[Pink Eye]

Define "early game" pistols. You can get Redeemer at level one. Anything with innate penetration is sufficient enough. Only thing the later pistols have over Redeemer is more reaction chance.

 

[Elhoim]

Reaction will get some tweaks in the system update, will use an unique attack (instead of snap/fast):

- Both for melee and ranged: Accuracy -15, Graze +15, Critical -10 (no longer limited to 5).
- Melee now uses regular damage.

Plus being a separate attack we'll add tweaks to feats that affect reaction. Also grazes will be tweaked to give more consistent damage throughout the game.

 

[Pink Eye]

Sounds exciting. Am looking forward to some nice Faythe builds that will emerge from these tweaks.

 

[lukaszek]

will reactions see improvements to weapon variety?
For example if character is into daggers -> they are terrible choice for reactions. Instead you should have as second slot some sword and use that instead.

 

[Elhoim]

will reactions see improvements to weapon variety?
For example if character is into daggers -> they are terrible choice for reactions. Instead you should have as second slot some sword and use that instead.

Yes, we are going to make another pass to melee weapons especially since we added quite a lot of new ones.

 

[Jaedar]

Also, are weapon feats...kinda trap?

I think not, but I have noticed that at character level 5, with a combat bot, I am starting to pick feats according to "which is the least bad pick", instead of "yay, I finally get to take X". Maybe this is just me being stingy, a lot of them are good, it's just it feels like treading water to add +7 evasion or whatever.

Jed's awful stat spread annoys me and I wish I could replace him sooner. Shuttle bay is fine, I guess, plenty of things happening there.

I think Jed is a very useful companion. His high str and armor perk means he is a fine tank, despite his low con. But I do agree that another companion early on would be nice, being "forced" to grab all available ones if you have high cha is a bit unfortunate. But I also don't want a DR situtation where the first batch are so bad you're better off leaving someone behind so they don't leech xp.

 

[Eyestabber]

What's the maximum level you ppl managed to reach? I read mastermind got NERFED into no longer starting at lvl 2, so I guess we would have to reach lvl 6 for it to be +2 feats, right? Anyone managed that?

 

[Pink Eye]

What's the maximum level you ppl managed to reach?

Last run I was at level 4 with barely getting to 5. With Faythe at level 5:

Spoiler

 

[Pink Eye]

This solo player managed to reach level 6 so I think it's possible if you go solo:

Spoiler

 

[Eyestabber]

So you would've hit 5 with 10 INT and (maybe) educated, but it wouldn't matter because the extra feat is locked behind lvl 6. In short, there's not much point in playing Mastermind yet. EDIT: lvl 6? nvm, I'll try a single companion run.

 

[Tsubutai]

What's the maximum level you ppl managed to reach? I read mastermind got NERFED into no longer starting at lvl 2, so I guess we would have to reach lvl 6 for it to be +2 feats, right? Anyone managed that?

Solo Masterminds hit level 6 easily in the Habitat, and can reach 7 by abusing the fact that the retroactive element of Educated's 20% XP boost isn't calculated correctly and awards more XP than it should when taken at a high level.

Spoiler

Hidden feats are Mastermind and Educated.

 

[Eyestabber]

What's the maximum level you ppl managed to reach? I read mastermind got NERFED into no longer starting at lvl 2, so I guess we would have to reach lvl 6 for it to be +2 feats, right? Anyone managed that?

Solo Masterminds hit level 6 easily in the Habitat, and can reach 7 by abusing the fact that the retroactive element of Educated's 20% XP boost isn't calculated correctly and awards more XP than it should when taken at a high level.

Spoiler

Hidden feats are Mastermind and Educated.

THAT is what I was looking for! It even answered my unspoken question: "can I get away with no tags in Biotech?" -> "yes, with skill monkey". I'm gonna build something similar + pistol Evans, but WHY CHA 5 and INT 11? I would've used the extra stat points to reach 18 AP and do two snipes per turn.

 

[Tsubutai]

What's the maximum level you ppl managed to reach? I read mastermind got NERFED into no longer starting at lvl 2, so I guess we would have to reach lvl 6 for it to be +2 feats, right? Anyone managed that?

Solo Masterminds hit level 6 easily in the Habitat, and can reach 7 by abusing the fact that the retroactive element of Educated's 20% XP boost isn't calculated correctly and awards more XP than it should when taken at a high level.

Spoiler

Hidden feats are Mastermind and Educated.

THAT is what I was looking for! It even answered my unspoken question: "can I get away with no tags in Biotech?" -> "yes, with skill monkey". I'm gonna build something similar + pistol Evans, but WHY CHA 5 and INT 11? I would've used the extra stat points to reach 18 AP and do two snipes per turn.

CHA 5 because I wanted a hybrid that could pass most of the Habitat speech checks to access content like the fights against Menzel and Crowe, and dumping CHA all the way to 4 gives you a disposition penalty that makes that impossible without tagged speech skills. Int 11 because when the next update is released I'll be able to overclock the Int implant and get a sixth skill tag with it.

 

[Sòren]

What's the maximum level you ppl managed to reach? I read mastermind got NERFED into no longer starting at lvl 2, so I guess we would have to reach lvl 6 for it to be +2 feats, right? Anyone managed that?

Solo Masterminds hit level 6 easily in the Habitat, and can reach 7 by abusing the fact that the retroactive element of Educated's 20% XP boost isn't calculated correctly and awards more XP than it should when taken at a high level.

Spoiler

Hidden feats are Mastermind and Educated.

mental fortitude gives skill learning rate boni?

FUCK

 

[Eyestabber]

That's some dedicated metagaming, reminds me of myself in 2015.

And yeah, mental fortitude bonus is part of his strategy, so I assume he also had to tweak the order of encounters in order to get 4 frog brains ASAP.

EDIT: show us the implants! And did you choose fight or skill in Braxton's finale?

 

[Pink Eye]

He probably sacrificed a companion to triple worm encounter though - or he saved it last. It's a pretty hard encounter.