Incline Colony Ship RELEASE THREAD

[Darth Roxor]

where am i angry

where do i say i expected a random roll

???

 

[Hellraiser]

Also Stealth is cancer in this game. I just got to the little section with Shadow where he wants you to stealth in to steal something. It is fucking absurd how hard that is unless you are a pure stealth build (like Faythe), but by being that you would kinda suck at everything else. The juice isn't worth the squeeze whatsoever. Dumping all those points & perks in stealth for what amounts to a couple side missions but having no relevance would be absurd. A solo stealth build -maybe- but even then you will suck so bad at everything else not sure that is even feasible. Needs a major rework.

The balance for stealth is at a weird place where you can do all but I think 2 sections (shadow's quest is one and probably the hardest one in the game) with 0 stealth feats, no tag in sneaking, and just a cloaking device, just with the skill level from trainers/tokens and whatever else you pick up along the way. That's how it looked liked for me with my previous character with 10 INT.

Playing with a stealth character now it seems the only benefits to going for stealth feats, besides some loot (where only the one from Shadow's quest is unique/rare enough to matter) and making the sections easier (for example cameras start getting green/yellow tile blind spots), is that you can reliably get critical strike learning points from being able to do more takedowns, and you can get the loot from those takedowns.

However the skill point level-up curve for critical strike is so bad that even with 2x gain from the 10 PER heroic feat "dodge this" I barely got it to level 5 by early chapter 3 (no tag, trying to takedown as many enemies as possible in stealth).

As for combat with a stealth build it isn't that bad on my current character despite no combat feats, but SMGs were not that good of an idea due to low HP from 4 CON and armor. Cloaking field allows him to do some contributions (flank a sniper, throw grenades without getting shot at), but he is getting carried by the party essentially from a damage output point of view. A better idea for a stealth build that does something in combat would have been to go with rifles and snipe from the back, then 4 con and lack of perks is not that big of an issue. Especially when I already have 10 PER and the heroic, his bullseye crits might have ended up being the bulk of the damage (assuming lack of +accuracy from feats is not an issue for THC, the 10 PER I got should help with this).

As for Master Blaster and energy weapons. There's a bunch of fights where energy weapons make a big difference due to enemy ballistic/melee resistances. I can see myself getting that feat in particular on a murderhobo run going for the hardest fights in the game, once all the far more useful weapon feats are taken to push the character's damage output over the edge for the last few fights. The bonuses on it are very good (and stack with the other feats), the problem is just the power cell economy.

In general the cells economy seems to be such that you either blow it all on the few really hard fights, or use the best energy weapon (probably rifle on a sniper or the better pistols with bullseye) to kill high value targets and then switch to a ballistic one for the weaker ones. The latter might also be a reason to take master blaster to help a bit in every fight, killing the boss fast, but that's a very big if, as it might be "cheaper" (more optimal) to use the other rare resources in such circumstances - the hi-tech grenades like stasis or pulse.

 

[Desman]

I'm baffled why there is a "Master Blaster" feat for energy weapons when even if you scavenge everything in sight you will never have enough ammo to make it useful. I'm more than 2/3rds of the way through the game and have enough energy ammo for maybe a battle or two. Useless Perk is Useless. In fact, why even have energy weapons at all if you cannot power them? They are not -that- much better than projectile weapons. They should be absolutely devastating if they are going to be these ammo stingy "use in case of emergency" devices, and they simply are not.

Also Stealth is cancer in this game. I just got to the little section with Shadow where he wants you to stealth in to steal something. It is fucking absurd how hard that is unless you are a pure stealth build (like Faythe), but by being that you would kinda suck at everything else. The juice isn't worth the squeeze whatsoever. Dumping all those points & perks in stealth for what amounts to a couple side missions but having no relevance would be absurd. A solo stealth build -maybe- but even then you will suck so bad at everything else not sure that is even feasible. Needs a major rework.

I just completed chapter 1 and while i do agree energy weapons are indeed scarce and expensive they seem to be a huge upgrade damage wise.
I did not manage to beat the creeper in hydroponics without my energy pistol. Probably won't use a feat for this tho.

 

[Hellraiser]

I did not manage to beat the creeper in hydroponics without my energy pistol.

I also had to use an energy weapon (the SMG) in that fight. Those things have too much resistance for almost all weapons I could find at that point in the game, scoped rifle (betsy?) with weak spots shots is the only ballistic one that did reliable damage. Fun fight, although the loot wasn't that good IIRC.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

where am i angry

where do i say i expected a random roll

???

Fates have determined that lukaszek sees randomness in all that's bad.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Fallout, in 1997, understood that every weapon category needed to have different loadout options, so the combat had some variance.

Who's going to tell him?

edit:never mind he fucking got me

Dumping all those points & perks in stealth for what amounts to a couple side missions but having no relevance would be absurd. A solo stealth build -maybe- but even then you will suck so bad at everything else not sure that is even feasible. Needs a major rework.

This is bullshit, first playthrough playing a solo dude with stealth but also enough combat/talking/science to get by, got all 3 boxes. This is playing blind, yes it's feasible.

 

[Pink Eye]

I did not manage to beat the creeper in hydroponics without my energy pistol.

Wear energy armor that you find in Armory Depot A, get googles with good thermal resistance, get some toxic resistances too. Use the bladed weapon's special carve ability to counter the creepers regen. If you have companions have them use aimed shots.

 

[HoboForEternity]

finished the game finally.

ending

ended up siding with the monk because they are the only ones who i feel know about shit and the technical know - how. they are effective, if not relentless. very cold and pragmatic but i managed to convince 2 factions out of 3 to work together, so i think it's turned decently in the end.

also 23% players have finished the game from the achievement % which is a lot more than i thought. overall great game, there are parts that i like more than AoD, and vice versa. comparison aside, i hope it does well and ITS can make more games.

wont replay until the december patch at least. the font size / menu size makes playing the game harder than it's supposed to be

 

[Hellraiser]

This is bullshit, first playthrough playing a solo dude with stealth but also enough combat/talking/science to get by, got all 3 boxes. This is playing blind, yes it's feasible.

I think the only one really needed there is maybe prowler to get more yellow tiles, but the bottleneck for that section is having enough sneak skill to get green tiles directly under the cameras (no feat helps with this) on the top-left wall and enough AP to move from one blind spot to the next (here tunnel runner could help, but I think I did it without it and 16 AP).

You need I think 6 or 7 sneaking to get those green tiles. It's also the only section with cameras where this is pretty much necessary, as there are no obstacles you could use together with the cloaking field to avoid detection by cameras get to the objective even on a non-stealthy/low sneak character.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

sorry i forgot i should read fifty guides on character building to powergame my feats properly before even starting

Dunno man, finding these low effort complaints funny after reading your review of a game about being a good muslim.

 

[Pink Eye]

Why is this shit so hard bros. Detroit encounter always takes me a million, no, a billion attempts before I even begin to puzzle it out.

Screenshot

 

[Desman]

I'm struggling with this fight with 4 characters + smiles, must be really painful solo lol.

 

[Darth Roxor]

sorry i forgot i should read fifty guides on character building to powergame my feats properly before even starting

Dunno man, finding these low effort complaints funny after reading your review of a game about being a good muslim.

colon ship and islands of the caliph are not that different considering that in this game you also play the role of a hobo who one day crawls out of his tent and embarks on a tour of the local archipelago space ship

 

[Pink Eye]

I'm struggling with this fight with 4 characters + smiles, must be really painful solo lol.

Even with 142 evasion I'm still getting my shit pushed in. Why VD, why.

Evasion

 

[Hellraiser]

I'm struggling with this fight with 4 characters + smiles, must be really painful solo lol.

3+smiles and some expensive grenades worked for me on my first character. Don't remember the exact combo, but I do remember making a run for it to the bottom cover to camp them and throwing a smoke grenade for additional cover there (and one at the start).

The hammer guy left of Bartholomew is the worst since smoke won't work on him and he hits like a truck. I would throw a stasis grenade on him and Bartholomew, then throw another one if too many goons live by the time he gets out of stasis and he gets too close. I remember most of the thugs being rather low on armor and easy to take out, plus blind as a bat if you are in smoke. If some goons have good thermal vision I would use a disruption grenade and kill them first while inside smoke so that the rest can't hit you.

This is one of those fights in the game where if you really want to murderhobo it (I think you can skip it by betraying Stanton?) you should just blow your hi-tech grenade load, as few fights are as hard and before the next one of this caliber you'll be able to restock on them anyway.

 

[HoboForEternity]

so is SMG build a trap? there are rifle that can do burst, even the lancer can do 5x burst with more damage and penetration. i knew it'd be come like that because in these games rifles are usually the most superior firearm.

 

[Sòren]

I'm baffled why there is a "Master Blaster" feat for energy weapons when even if you scavenge everything in sight you will never have enough ammo to make it useful. I'm more than 2/3rds of the way through the game and have enough energy ammo for maybe a battle or two. Useless Perk is Useless. In fact, why even have energy weapons at all if you cannot power them? They are not -that- much better than projectile weapons. They should be absolutely devastating if they are going to be these ammo stingy "use in case of emergency" devices, and they simply are not.

Also Stealth is cancer in this game. I just got to the little section with Shadow where he wants you to stealth in to steal something. It is fucking absurd how hard that is unless you are a pure stealth build (like Faythe), but by being that you would kinda suck at everything else. The juice isn't worth the squeeze whatsoever. Dumping all those points & perks in stealth for what amounts to a couple side missions but having no relevance would be absurd. A solo stealth build -maybe- but even then you will suck so bad at everything else not sure that is even feasible. Needs a major rework.

i always give the feat to my sniper and/or pistolero, but lategame most the time. there are more than enough energy cells around, i generally end up with ~100 after leaving the habitat. a high crit sniper build makes incredible amount of damage with that feat.

 

[Pink Eye]

so is SMG build a trap? there are rifle that can do burst, even the lancer can do 5x burst with more damage and penetration. i knew it'd be come like that because in these games rifles are usually the most superior firearm.

Well SMGs have a lower AP cost for burst shots. Rifles usually impose a high AP cost for any of the burst shots, I think up to 16, I don't think you can get two burst shots off on a rifle unless you have high AP.

 

[HoboForEternity]

so is SMG build a trap? there are rifle that can do burst, even the lancer can do 5x burst with more damage and penetration. i knew it'd be come like that because in these games rifles are usually the most superior firearm.

Well SMGs have a lower AP cost for burst shots. Rifles usually impose a high AP cost for any of the burst shots, I think up to 16, I don't think you can get two burst shots off on a rifle unless you have high AP.

Yeah but with the high enemy DR in the end of the game it was nearly useless to me. I have the penetration feats. It doesnt matter if you can burst twice if a lot of your damage are absorbed or even completely nulled.

It was fine, even good early to mid game, but by endgame they are terrible.

 

[lukaszek]

where am i angry

where do i say i expected a random roll

???

Fates have determined that lukaszek seems randomness in all that's bad.

tech you dont understand is magic. When you dont understand causality of actions - they seem random. Mum of a guy on the internet is hot until you see a pic proving otherwise

 

[Hellraiser]

Finally managed to out-powergame VD's "no powergaming fun allowed" design.

minor habitat sidequest spoiler

Apparently if you sneak into Menzel's apartment without talking to the guards outside, kill Menzel and the two other guys inside the apartment in stealth (took a while to figure out how to do that), loot the apartment and their corpses, and then come back via the vent to the guards to talk with them, it triggers the conversation with them as normal, leading to you talking with Menzel despite him being dead.

Here's Ninjabro scamming a corpse out of 2k credits You can even see him dead on the floor along with one of his bros.

I guess what's bugged here is that when I killed all of them in stealth it ended stealth mode and the "quest done" flag is only set if you exit through the vent in stealth mode (the apartment is locked so that's the only way to exit anyway, unless a fight starts and the door opens IIRC).

 

[Pink Eye]

but by endgame they are terrible.

It's a problem with SMGs, yeah. They start suffering big time as DR reaches high levels. Though, I think Faythe makes for a better SMG due to her Assassin feat giving innate penetration - she's able to reach more penetration than the MC can. Try an SMG Faythe if you haven't. It's fun.

 

[Hellraiser]

but by endgame they are terrible.

It's a problem with SMGs, yeah. They start suffering big time as DR reaches high levels. Though, I think Faythe makes for a better SMG due to her Assassin feat giving innate penetration - she's able to reach more penetration than the MC can. Try an SMG Faythe if you haven't. It's fun.

Doesn't sprayer granting plus penetration per skill level offset this to almost rifle levels of penetration? Best rifles have 25, a 15 penetration SMG with 7 in the skill would get 22. Not as good but still good as far as endgame weapon choices go. A more bog standard SMG like the Spitfire I got in Act 1 IIRC has 10 penetration, that can last you a decent time.

But without that feat the "damage resisted" messages do start showing up in Act 2 often for me.

 

[Pink Eye]

Doesn't sprayer granting plus penetration per skill level offset this to almost rifle levels of penetration? Best rifles have 25, a 15 penetration SMG with 7 in the skill would get 22.

It scales even harder with Faythe's Assassin feat too resulting in some ludicrous fun. She's the best companion.

 

[jackofshadows]

I'm baffled why there is a "Master Blaster" feat for energy weapons when even if you scavenge everything in sight you will never have enough ammo to make it useful. I'm more than 2/3rds of the way through the game and have enough energy ammo for maybe a battle or two. Useless Perk is Useless. In fact, why even have energy weapons at all if you cannot power them? They are not -that- much better than projectile weapons. They should be absolutely devastating if they are going to be these ammo stingy "use in case of emergency" devices, and they simply are not.

That is not even the end game. And I had that perk/used energy rifle with its 4 cells per shot quite liberally. Some cells are locked behind per checks, some behind high level skill checks and of course you always want to end enemies with energy weapons before they even able to waste those precious cells.

Also Stealth is cancer in this game. I just got to the little section with Shadow where he wants you to stealth in to steal something. It is fucking absurd how hard that is unless you are a pure stealth build (like Faythe), but by being that you would kinda suck at everything else. The juice isn't worth the squeeze whatsoever. Dumping all those points & perks in stealth for what amounts to a couple side missions but having no relevance would be absurd. A solo stealth build -maybe- but even then you will suck so bad at everything else not sure that is even feasible. Needs a major rework.

Well, you need that skill raised at that point in order to succeed, just as you need speech skills otherwise you won't be able to persuade anyone past mid game. That's kinda optional quest, too. With skill monkey I didn't use every opportunity to raise stealth and still was able to easily do the eye quest, had both prowler and tunnel runner feats though too.