Incline Colony Ship RELEASE THREAD

[HoboForEternity]

any tip for ol' bub?

 

[Cyberarmy]

any tip for ol' bub?

Use Romeo, use heavy energy weapons, pump up the Zen and statsis the guys in trouble. Energy armors help a bit since they mitigate most of his debuffs.

 

[Pink Eye]

any tip for ol' bub?

Knockdown. Stasis. Shoot. Stasis again. Shoot. Kill. Aggro stim on last stasis 'nade.

 

[Trithne]

Writing took a significant dive and the whole setup is weak. We must have amnesia because we're constantly asking stupid questions and we know nothing even about things that we definitely should know about living so many years in the Pit. It's not Summoner level of writing (where ALL MC's responses were questions) but it's no Age of Decadence level.

One thing you see in most RPGs that's missing here is the Main Character usually is new to the game world in some way, so it makes sense why they wouldn't know a lot and need to ask questions. This fits nicely with the Player learning about the world for the first time.

It might seem impossible in a closed world like CS, but sci-fi is virtually limitless. For example, make the Main Character someone from the time of the Mutiny who's been in trapped in stasis until divers happen to find you in some far off corner of the ship. You wake up physically intact, but being under for hundreds of years has wiped your memory and abilities. However, people look at you with a certain curiosity, which leads the power players in the world to try to use you for their purposes... cue the plot.

That's nothing novel and a bit Chosen One-ish but point is, if we weren't going to get different game starts like in AoD, I wish we could've at least gotten a more interesting setup to the story than "you wake up in your apartment after 25 years of doing nothing and decide to go on an adventure".

This post has gotten so stuck in my brain that I spent my drive home from work dreaming up a shit premise I can never use because everyone will call it a rip-off of Colony Ship. So I'll just dump it here instead:

Generation ship, converted cargo hauler, mutiny, blah blah same as Colony Ship. Bunch of divers break into a heretofore inaccessible part of Mission Control and discover a bunch of stasis pods holding colonists from the launch of the ship, an insurance against everything going horribly wrong and everyone dying. Due to the effects of the mutiny most of the pods have failed and their occupants little more than a decomposed slurry, but the scavengers accidentally open one pod with a living occupant: The player character. They declare that you owe them your life and you're now indebted to work for them, starting you off on a short adventure that probably leads to all of the scavengers dying and you escaping into the Pit to start a new life.

The gimmick here is that, due to what could probably be called an overabundance of caution, the command systems of the Ship were configured to not accept orders from anyone it didn't identify as a human being, in case of theoretical alien attack. Problem is, the designers didn't account for the Ship not really being perfectly insulated against cosmic radiation, and with the mutiny gutting the command structure and leaving no-one able to recalibrate it, the Ship's idea of "human" no longer matches that of the Ship's occupants. Except for one particular human who just got defrosted. Only the upper echelons of each faction are really aware of this however, and it takes time for news of this individual to reach them from the Pit.

And from there you get some wacky Chosen One adventure as each faction tries to coerce/strongarm/convince you to give them access to the Ship's command network.

 

[Hellraiser]

any tip for ol' bub?

Get all energy armors if possible, knockdown using bullseye attacks rifles/energy pistols or knockdown with blunt. Use the best energy weapons that ideally have knockdown if you can. With luck you might even stun lock him due to the constant AP loss inflicted from knockdowns or staggers or stuns, at the very least he might not be able to get off another mental attack.

IIRC if you have one guy in melee range he won't burrow and re-target someone else so you can use that to also swap your designated punching bag and let your tank regain some HP. Also this prevents him spitting and blinding your bros.

Pump your party with Zen stims in the positioning phase to mitigate the worst of the first (and hopefully only) mental attack.

I didn't need to use any stasis grenades on him when using Evans and Jed as my bros (and endgame gear), but it helps since from what I understand stasis after he's knocked down gives you time for the panic debuff to wear off and he won't cast another one when he comes out of stasis. That and I think coming out of stasis causes a AP debuff so you don't need the knockdown first? Been a while since I used one.

If you can use romeo (only if you managed to steal the eye apparently, I couldn't otherwise) then use him.

 

[HoboForEternity]

any tip for ol' bub?

Get all energy armors if possible, knockdown using bullseye attacks rifles/energy pistols or knockdown with blunt. Use the best energy weapons that ideally have knockdown if you can. With luck you might even stun lock him due to the constant AP loss inflicted from knockdowns or staggers or stuns, at the very least he might not be able to get off another mental attack.

IIRC if you have one guy in melee range he won't burrow and re-target someone else so you can use that to also swap your designated punching bag and let your tank regain some HP. Also this prevents him spitting and blinding your bros.

Pump your party with Zen stims in the positioning phase to mitigate the worst of the first (and hopefully only) mental attack.

I didn't need to use any stasis grenades on him when using Evans and Jed as my bros (and endgame gear), but it helps since from what I understand stasis after he's knocked down gives you time for the panic debuff to wear off and he won't cast another one when he comes out of stasis. That and I think coming out of stasis causes a AP debuff so you don't need the knockdown first? Been a while since I used one.

If you can use romeo (only if you managed to steal the eye apparently, I couldn't otherwise) then use him.

Can you go back after that encounter with shadow? I haven't the optimal setup for bub yet. I barely beat shadow and his turrets in mission control, but i beat that bitch without hacking because i dont have enough skill. That fight was a mofo. i have some energy weapons but have no ammo yet.

 

[Hellraiser]

Can you go back after that encounter with shadow?

Yes, some passage/room on the floor above to the left of where the retinal scanner is opens up, you have to climb through a vent or something that's highlighted there. It takes you directly to the fight.

 

[Desman]

So I've finished the game a couple of times and can finally say something about it.

tl;dr
8/10 game, nowhere near as good as Age of Decadence (which is a 10/10 game).

+ Fights are great, challenging and rewarding.

+ Sneaking is great.

- Writing took a significant dive and the whole setup is weak. We must have amnesia because we're constantly asking stupid questions and we know nothing even about things that we definitely should know about living so many years in the Pit. It's not Summoner level of writing (where ALL MC's responses were questions) but it's no Age of Decadence level. There are also no memorable characters here (maybe besides our companions), just quest givers and lore dumpers.
In AoD Miltiades is legendary, he's a very colourful character and when we first meet him he doesn't give you a quest, on the contrary, WE are his quest. Or Neleos, he doesn't speak much but the things he says are interesting and his pragmatism and coldness are very refreshing (plus he's honorable despite being an assassin). Feng on the other hand is antipathetic and bitter but under right circumstances we can learn a bit about his past and profit from it at the same time. Dellar and Antidas are memorable too (for different reasons) and these are only from Teron.

- I know I'll be in minority but I miss AoD teleporting, here there's too much pointless walking IMO, e.g. from Eli to Ava, from Ava to Armory, then to the bridge but here we need to click on doors that say "keep traveling" a couple of times even though these locations contain nothing but these doors. Utterly pointless. Or when we deliver a warning we have to talk to each leader (thankfully we only have to click once on a gate) and then do the extra step of going to Ava. It allows us the chance to go to mission control or to courthouse but we might as well do it from ECLSS and not waste time in case we're not interested in further exploring.

What's worse though, there are times when we don't want to be teleported but we have no choice or we don't have time to use acquired feat because a dialogue starts. There was also that time when after a fight where we helped Faythe a conversation starts and she gains a feat that is utterly arbitrary so if we get one we don't want we have to repeat the fight (which at this point is hard, especially for a non-combat character).

- I have a feeling that the game is much more linear than AoD, we can't just explore the ship and there is certain order how we do things required from us (e.g. we get the message: "you should finish Tanner's quest" first or here once we get in we can't retry even when we're not caught). Some of it is justified but more often than not it's not and it was probably added for easier scripting (e.g. we can't return to the Pit until we offer the machine to one of the factions).

- Areas are too fragmented (like in Underrail) and we have to click on a ladder/platform/bushes/'squeeze through door' to progress. Too much pointless clicking for my taste. In AoD bigger locations had only a couple of those, here even small areas have quite a few of them.

- Besides Mission Control, Hydroponics and The Pit locations are rather disappointing. The Habitat is just a shadow of Maadoran, there's not that much to do here really. Factory got a little better but the Dumont encounter is still retarded and they don't even confiscate our weapons when we go for a talk (it's a theme here though, important people allow us to see them face to face and be armed to the teeth instead of doing it remotely or seeing us only after we hand over the weapons). The rest of locations isn't more impressive either.

- Going somewhere requires precision mouse pointing, I can't just click very close to a specific location, I need to be exact. Very often I can't enter some building or go through a bridge because I need to click on an exact tile.


- Wokeness level is high for such an obscure game. Strong women and niggers are everywhere (or shit like this: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198091764097/screenshot/2242291164388579215/ ).

Nitpicks

- Combat reputation (and reputation in general) doesn't give enough, 10 combat is nothing but if I've had much more (we get "deadly" at 40) I certainly would prefer a fight to get loot than to get nothing at all. With persuasion/streetwise at least we're increasing our skills, here it allows us only to pass a check that in a long run is detrimental because not only do we not get loot but also we're missing on some valuable experience points.

- You can't sneak alone in Hydroponics Yellow Zone, even though one person would be enough do the job. You have to sneak with all party even when no one else can sneak, lol.


- We can't escape from a fight, something that I miss from AoD (although IIRC they've changed it in later versions of AoD where escaping was most of the time impossible). Of course there could be encounters with no escape (e.g. if you would fall into a trap and the doors would be locked or guarded) but there are some where escaping should be possible (e.g. in Hydroponics behind the fence, where there are a lot of frogs).

- Sneaking is great and one of the high points of the game but it's annoying that you need to meta game in order to properly build your character around it. Faythe that is built for it can't for example sneak properly through Mercy's base due to too low STR (there is a conduit there that can help us, although going through here would definitely make so much noise that you would have to be deaf to not hear it). It's not that necessary but it's annoying that a character that you're specifically tailoring for sneaking can stumble upon an obstacle that she can't overcome. Computers/electronics checks also come into play here.

- Some things don't make sense, e.g. we only have to pay the toll once to go to the Habitat, later we can just teleport for free, we also can see Silas with -10 reputation or we get only 20 exp points in computers after passing a 7 skill check. Another example is when Shadow leaves us in a control room where we can program the turrets to attack him and his men even though they are skilled enough to program them themselves and if we won't do it he and the turrets will attack us.

- Jed/Evans/Faythe are waiting at Whiskey Jack till the end only to tell me that they won't rejoin me, lol.

- Some Speech Skills responses are ridiculous, e.g.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198091764097/screenshot/2242291164388583555/ or https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198091764097/screenshot/2242291164388581792/

- We can't snipe from afar (Hydroponics, Red Zone, where we see creepers and floaters below) - this is an extreme nitpick but it would be hilarious if we could just snipe tough creepers and floaters from the tower and they wouldn't be able to do a thing.

After all this you might ask WTF have I rated this game so high? And the answer is simple - weighted mean. Pros outweigh the cons because it's really fun to play. Despite its significant flaws the game is enjoyable and I already have over 120 hours and counting. I'll definitely play again and make a completely different build.

I agree regarding memorable characters and the game being more linear.

The part about it being woke because there's black people and stronk womyn is hilarious though. We're not in Ancient Rome here, it's a generation ship in the year of 2754 launched into space by the church. Poles will be poles, I guess.

After some time and multiple generations all the people in the ship should have some shade of brown skin except actual codexers reproducing via parthenogenesis.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Except for one particular human who just got defrosted.

Codex yearns for The Outer Worlds.


So , is this or. I waiting to get paid to pick up, gotta support Iron studio, i don't wanna a rising studio to die.

 

[goregasm]

Except for one particular human who just got defrosted.

Codex yearns for The Outer Worlds.


So , is this or. I waiting to get paid to pick up, gotta support Iron studio, i don't wanna a rising studio to die.

I definitely vote incline, though the concensus to some seems to be it's decline from AoD at least.

 

[Pink Eye]

Except for one particular human who just got defrosted.

Codex yearns for The Outer Worlds.


So , is this or. I waiting to get paid to pick up, gotta support Iron studio, i don't wanna a rising studio to die.

I think it's a very well made game, so far the complaints have mostly been contrarian takes.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Except for one particular human who just got defrosted.

Codex yearns for The Outer Worlds.


So , is this or. I waiting to get paid to pick up, gotta support Iron studio, i don't wanna a rising studio to die.

This is a good RPG, better than most new age shit we are getting.

 

[Technomancer]

We must have amnesia because we're constantly asking stupid questions and we know nothing even about things that we definitely should know about living so many years in the Pit.

I did actually follow through on that promise. Delayed it forever and I hated doing that lol. Even something so insignificant requires a lot focus.

Spoiler

To be fair it is better than it was and most of the amnesiac Pit dialogue was changed. There are only a few left. For some reason vince didn't change the one where MC asks about courthouse which makes no sense. No way you never visited arena as a spectator.

 

[Nikanuur]

So, basically, if I missed the 'first' fight with Ol Bub, and I have to crawl through the hole to confront the worm, I can't invite Romeo to that fight no more?

 

[Pink Eye]

I can't invite Romeo to that fight no more?

If you failed to get the eye then the door will be damaged and you will need to crawl through a vent at Security Quarters to get back at Ol' Bub. In this scenario, yes, you will not be able to call Romeo. However, if you did manage to get the eye in the stealth mission from Shadow at ECLSS then the door should not be damaged and you'll be able to re-enter Ol' Bubs lair through the door, this is the scenario where you can call Romeo.

So to answer your question, is the door broken?

 

[Nikanuur]

I can't invite Romeo to that fight no more?

If you failed to get the eye then the door will be damaged and you will need to crawl through a vent at Security Quarters to get back at Ol' Bub. In this scenario, yes, you will not be able to call Romeo. However, if you did manage to get the eye in the stealth mission from Shadow at ECLSS then the door should not be damaged and you'll be able to re-enter Ol' Bubs lair through the door, this is the scenario where you can call Romeo.

So to answer your question, is the door broken?

Yes
Thank you for answering anyway though.
The fight is pretty tough, given I don't want to spend plasma cells.
I was sometimes able to bring him to ca. 15 HP, bringing only weapons with the highest penetration. Still, generally around him being 10-20 HP, all hypos and HPs on my side are spent, people start to die, meh.
I killed him so far only using the cells.

That reminds me. Do you remember who was selling the Hand cannon? I can't find it anywhere now O.O

 

[Pink Eye]

Do you remember who was selling the Hand cannon?

Nope. I get all my loots from combats. Only thing I buy is consumables. Sorry. Hopefully someone else can answer your question.

 

[AdolfSatan]

so far the complaints have mostly been contrarian takes.

Nah man, you’re fanboying. Barring obvious trolls, all the critique towards the game has been legit, no one’s overreaching when critiquing the railroadedness of the game or the characterless NPCs.
In the grand scheme, this is still a game above its competition —be it AAA or indie devs—, but in the ITS scale it’s clearly decline (AoD was a classic, DR was great, CS is good).

 

[Pink Eye]

Nah man, you’re fanboying.

Well no shit? I'm a fan of this game.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

Is this better or worse than Baldurs Gate 3 for the codex?

 

[Sibelius]

Question is, do you have any objections to me sharing this for other people interested in making the game a bit more beautiful? ... Is there a reason this is now seen as a must have non-optional feature in CRPGs?

I appreciate you liking the work I did on the environment, and I play without the permanent outlines on (the one in our settings). But seeing at the screenshots it really makes the game a lot harder to read (especially where you can move on, the grid doesn't perfectly match the visuals in some areas) and I wouldn't recommend any new player to use it as it can create a lot of confusion and conflicting visual feedback (where to walk, what to interact with, etc). It could make debugging and wading through false reports harder. But go ahead, it's part of the job =)

Thanks Elhoim, heads up that the mod is activated by a toggle key that needs to be pressed once after launching the game. If a player is confused about not being able to move to a square the grid can be toggled back on by pressing the toggle key again. I'll add to a couple of sites and share the link here for people that will find it useful. I wouldn't worry about it causing more work for you, I am likely to be pretty much the lone crusader, off on my crusade against visual imperfection and QoL

 

[Pink Eye]

Is this better or worse than Baldurs Gate 3 for the codex?

We don't have gay bear sex. So I think this is worse for codex

 

[Tigranes]

I just assume all my CRPG characters have amnesia. Heya, it's me, Imoen, who the fuck are you you weird tramp

 

[Whisper]

Is this better or worse than Baldurs Gate 3 for the codex?

On Woke level they are equal.
On writing level, BG3 has better writing. No amnesiac who lives in small town for long time and asks everyone in this town who are they.
On exploration level BG3 have in first act much more secrets to find, places to search and points of interest than in whole CS levels combined.

Not fair to compare to BG3 though, BG3 had much better resources.

Compared to AoD and Dungeon rats, this is decline.

 

[Butter]

Is this better or worse than Baldurs Gate 3 for the codex?

You can tell people you play this game without them calling the cops on you.