Incline Colony Ship RELEASE THREAD

[whydoibother]

That's a 73% chance to hit against my dodge tank character, with maxed dexterity, a +evasion upgrade chip for his motor cortex, artful dodger, the gladiator feat (I think, the melee one that gives you +dodge?), and true grit (+6 evasion when not in cover). The highest evasion it is possible to have, unless I have missed something obvious. All to bring the enemy's to-hit chance from 100% down to 73%. Not even a noteworthy enemy.

I don't know if this changed in later builds, but the game doesn't really have a "tank" character. Everyone will soak damage, you kinda want to spread it around, no?
As in, don't built people to be "tanks", since not only is it not worth it, but the role itself is hard to play out.

 

[StrongBelwas]

Not to much to say about the game yet, still exploring the early stages, but Hydroponics is a very interesting area to search around.

 

[Technomancer]

What is going on here?

 

[Alienman]

Is shooting dudes in the leg the best way to kill? It seems arm, torso, and headshots are kinda crap comparable. Shoot a guy in the leg, and it dramatically increases everyone's else aim, which makes the DPS spike overall. I don't even bother switching from legs atm. I guess I will be known as the leg butcher on the ship.

 

[razvedchiki]

Having started a choice-heavy, sci-fi themed RPG, I didn't think twice and took a 'scientific prodigy INT 10 guy' with some DEX and PER for some shooting. As the first feat I chose the bonus exp and at the second level the second bonus exp feat too. I am still in the beginning, but so far I have waltzed through 90% of encounters like a hot knife through butter, defusing heated situations, stealing everything, scavenging every electronic successfully, even talking everybody into anything except the armor vendor...

For the non-hero difficulty this surely raises eyebrows :D

But don't get me wrong, I like the game already. It's just that I hope it gets harder later on?

it does, chapter 1 fights are generally "easy" once you grasp how the mechanics work. you killed the octapus thing in the hydroponics?
for frogs have high optical/toxic resistance and equip boots wth knee protection, always kill the psion frogs first

 

[Lord of Riva]

Is shooting dudes in the leg the best way to kill? It seems arm, torso, and headshots are kinda crap comparable. Shoot a guy in the leg, and it dramatically increases everyone's else aim, which makes the DPS spike overall. I don't even bother switching from legs atm. I guess I will be known as the leg butcher on the ship.

I use leg then arm. The damage is the same and it helps surviving. But I agree that legs first is the best option for enemies you can shoot in the legs.

 

[agris]

Is shooting dudes in the leg the best way to kill? It seems arm, torso, and headshots are kinda crap comparable. Shoot a guy in the leg, and it dramatically increases everyone's else aim, which makes the DPS spike overall. I don't even bother switching from legs atm. I guess I will be known as the leg butcher on the ship.

It changes as your character gets more skilled, and enemy gear changes. Pretty early on you’ll be aiming for not just debuffs, but low DR-armored areas. I did a lot of leg and arm shots early on. Later when I was more accurate and had a better weapon, head/bullseye shots were how I maximized damage and they made more sense, depending on the encounter

 

[jackofshadows]

Game got dumbed down for accessibility. So finishing game on combat paths on hardest difficulty (Underdog) can be done without really subpar party, built with little thought.

Make up your fucking mind already. You wrote in some previous post basically that any sub-optimal build fucks off.

 

[Kiste]

What is going on here?

 

[JarlFrank]

Used sneak to break into an apartment and...

Didn't expect to see racemixing in this game

 

[Nikanuur]

Is shooting dudes in the leg the best way to kill? It seems arm, torso, and headshots are kinda crap comparable. Shoot a guy in the leg, and it dramatically increases everyone's else aim, which makes the DPS spike overall. I don't even bother switching from legs atm. I guess I will be known as the leg butcher on the ship.

Hmm, I believe that approaching this as a checklist instead of chosing one will win you an even better moniker.

 

[Whisper]

Is shooting dudes in the leg the best way to kill? It seems arm, torso, and headshots are kinda crap comparable. Shoot a guy in the leg, and it dramatically increases everyone's else aim, which makes the DPS spike overall. I don't even bother switching from legs atm. I guess I will be known as the leg butcher on the ship.

Yes.
Best defence option is "don the sturdiest armors". Best attack option "shoot a guy in the leg".

Combat is very rich, let me tell you.

 

[Steezus]

Is shooting dudes in the leg the best way to kill? It seems arm, torso, and headshots are kinda crap comparable. Shoot a guy in the leg, and it dramatically increases everyone's else aim, which makes the DPS spike overall. I don't even bother switching from legs atm. I guess I will be known as the leg butcher on the ship.

Yes.
Best defence option is "don the sturdiest armors". Best attack option "shoot a guy in the leg".

Combat is very rich, let me tell you.

Will your DEFCON 1 grade 'tism cause an immediate nervous breakdown, when you encounter enemies with leg armor?

 

[Whisper]

Is shooting dudes in the leg the best way to kill? It seems arm, torso, and headshots are kinda crap comparable. Shoot a guy in the leg, and it dramatically increases everyone's else aim, which makes the DPS spike overall. I don't even bother switching from legs atm. I guess I will be known as the leg butcher on the ship.

Yes.
Best defence option is "don the sturdiest armors". Best attack option "shoot a guy in the leg".

Combat is very rich, let me tell you.

Will your DEFCON 1 grade 'tism cause an immediate nervous breakdown, when you encounter enemies with leg armor?

Obviously, if enemy has no legs, you shoot another Optimal (tm) spot. Each enemy has one optimal spot to shoot/stab.

 

[Saduj]

Unfortunately, this game is decline.
This is not like the original Age of Decadence, or more recent games like Underrail, or what ever you might be thinking of when you hear classic RPG, or tactical turn based RPG. In those games you can get away with making a slightly sub-optimal, or even sub-optimal character. With games like Underrail it is hard to survive when you do this, but despite the brutality you can do it if you are smart and you use all the resources given to you. This game is not like that. It is very, very limited in what you can do in each section of the game; especially the start.

I can see what the developers of the game were going for, what they are trying to do. It is easy to see because they comment about it on nearly every review, and nearly every thread. More specifically, they post the builds you should use for this game. The most popular guides for this game are character builds and walkthroughs. Why? Because if you make your character even slightly poorly, even a little bit out of line with what the developers had in mind for the type of character wanted you to make, you will die, or get stuck and not be able to proceed.

It is fine to have a strong idea of how your game should be played. A good idea would be to lock off side sections of the game, extra bits full of extra stuff that you may not get into if your character does not fit just exactly right. But, this game gatekeeps... the entire game, almost from the start, if you do not make your character in line with what was envisioned for them by the devs.

Bought the game on release but was finishing up something else before giving it a try.

Your comments have me curious because if you leave out the part where you mentioned AOD, this reads exactly like many criticisms of AOD. I very much enjoyed AOD but I did find myself hoarding skill points after being locked out of a couple of questlines. It was unnecessary for certain occupations but necessary for others, IMO I know other people disagree and say they never had to do this at any point. The learn by use skill system seemed like a good idea for mitigating this. Are you saying it just amplifies the issue? Just trying to figure out how someone who seems to have had no issue with AOD could have such a strong reaction to what sounds like the same design decisions in CS...

 

[Nikanuur]

Is shooting dudes in the leg the best way to kill? It seems arm, torso, and headshots are kinda crap comparable. Shoot a guy in the leg, and it dramatically increases everyone's else aim, which makes the DPS spike overall. I don't even bother switching from legs atm. I guess I will be known as the leg butcher on the ship.

Yes.
Best defence option is "don the sturdiest armors". Best attack option "shoot a guy in the leg".

Combat is very rich, let me tell you.

I think that's just unfriendly. I feel the need to counter your opinion with the following little account of one particular fight.

I just fought two thugs and one semi-boss in close quarters, all of them at least a level higher.
My shotgun tank with maxed HP and shields up stood in the middle of the room, taking the hits.
I (rifles) and the other guy (melee and shotguns too) were safe in the cover, respectively to two enemies. Only one thug stood behind our backs.
The tank and I maimed everybody in the first round. Somewhat lucky outcome of a, nevertheless, tactical decision.
In the second round, I and that other guy made short work of the first thug in our backs, taking only grazes and one full hit in the process (remember that maiming greatly reduces enemies' hit chances and stacks with the evasion, no matter how poor it is by itself?).
The tank was down to 1/2 HP.
After that, I sent the melee guy to face the semi-boss at melee range. The semi-boss was standing in the cover but unfortunately also positioned in an L corridor with nowhere else to run. Thus, being cornered, maimed, and resorting to imprecise snap-shots, he had a hard time even as a boss.
By that time, the shotgun tank had circumvented the ranged thug hidden behind the crates and started unloading the maiming and staggering shell-shots into him, point-blank (tactical advantage of shotguns).
My 'sniper' self received a great aiming advantage because of that and killed that thug with a fair 71% hit chance, despite him crouching in cover.
By the time the boss probably realized his snap-shots were doing little harm, he switched to his own club and actually landed a lucky critical for 1/2 HP of my melee dude. I admit that that was a rather unpleasant moment.
Nevertheless, he had no chance. From the top, the shotgunner came, my melee landed at least some successful attacks, and my 'sniper self', again receiving severe aiming bonuses, finished the boss with a headshot, despite it being an anti-climactic non-critical

This time, for a change, nobody from my party got incapacitated during the fight; heck, I even had to use a mere 3-5 medkits afterwards. Man, not only was I proud to have solved the situation properly, but it was nothing short of an X-COM 2 worth of tactics and possibilities. And I haven't even used items.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

How long is one playthrough is supposed to be? What is range of character level?

 

[notpl]

That's a 73% chance to hit against my dodge tank character, with maxed dexterity, a +evasion upgrade chip for his motor cortex, artful dodger, the gladiator feat (I think, the melee one that gives you +dodge?), and true grit (+6 evasion when not in cover). The highest evasion it is possible to have, unless I have missed something obvious. All to bring the enemy's to-hit chance from 100% down to 73%. Not even a noteworthy enemy.

I don't know if this changed in later builds, but the game doesn't really have a "tank" character. Everyone will soak damage, you kinda want to spread it around, no?
As in, don't built people to be "tanks", since not only is it not worth it, but the role itself is hard to play out.

But you can. A str 10 Juggernaut heavy armor build will shrug off attacks from all but the most lethal enemies, you can park a character like that in the middle of combat and let every enemy wear him down for 2-3 turns while the rest of your party picks the enemies off. If you do the same with a Dex 10 evasion specialist he won't survive past the second smg burst. The two things have an equal opportunity cost but vastly unequal outcomes. It's just bad. It is a mistake. Evasion should either be buffed or removed, as it stands now it is a classic trap option, feats like Artful Dodger simply should not be in the game.

Also, as a sideline, was grinding combat skills something that existed in the EA? Because it's definitely not possible now, there's a pretty low cap on the amount of xp you can get in any given skill that I assume is based on the overall combat xp awarded for the encounter. It doesn't matter if you make ten knife attacks or a hundred, you're only getting 10 blade xp for a given fight.

 

[Darth Roxor]

After playing for an hour I can't say I'm very amazed with this game. First thing that greets me are dozens of walls of text. Then characters start descriptive-dialoguing at me, leading to the usual shit that always grinds my gears:

thank God the game mentioned he's a dark skinned man with an optical implant or I simply wouldn't have figured

Of course it's also a generic starter town opening with generic starter town problems that everyone lays out on me, except this time I'm also flooded with deep lore and name-bombed with references to people I have no idea about, and already people are asking me to take sides or some shit, whoa hold on there game, I ain't even acclimatised yet.

The layout of the starter town with the layers of catwalks in a big dark area and a static camera also makes me groan, fortunately comrade highlight shows me where the points of interest are.

This better get better soon or I'll turn unpleasant.

 

[Haba]

Used sneak to break into an apartment and...
View attachment 43354

Didn't expect to see racemixing in this game

The guy is a rapist who broke into the apartment before you.

 

[Camel]

The devs evidently were inspired by Orphans of the Sky.

 

[Takamori]

Killed Ol' Bub in Underdog nice fight

 

[Ryzer]

Of course it's also a generic starter town opening with generic starter town problems that everyone lays out on me, except this time I'm also flooded with deep lore and name-bombed with references to people I have no idea about, and already people are asking me to take sides or some shit, whoa hold on there game, I ain't even acclimatised yet.

The layout of the starter town with the layers of catwalks in a big dark area and a static camera also makes me groan, fortunately comrade highlight shows me where the points of interest are.

Elex also starts like this.

 

[JarlFrank]

The layout of the starter town with the layers of catwalks in a big dark area and a static camera also makes me groan, fortunately comrade highlight shows me where the points of interest are.

This better get better soon or I'll turn unpleasant.

The layouts of the Habitat are worse tbh

 

[StrongBelwas]

Music when you enter the Factory is but unless I'm being retarded something seems a bit off with the game's pathfinding. It's not game breaking, or as annoying as you could occasionally have to deal with in say Planescape Torment, but I find myself having to 'reset' the party by clicking on the portraits to get them to start moving again. Seems to crop up particularly a lot in Mission Control.