Incline Colony Ship RELEASE THREAD

[lukaszek]

you can sneak kill everyone in there without engaging combat, hargrave included

speaking of which i ran into a funny 'feature' there that prevented me from shanking everyone in stealth

namely, I didn't have enough AP to kill all the dudes immediately at the energy gate in one turn, but I could kill enough to stay in green tiles, and the dead dudes were also in green tiles

... except that one of them partially ragdolled into a yellow tile on death with his head, which always started combat on the next turn, and there was nothing I could do about that

i thought that green tiles are just for you, not for the bodies?
Likely what happened was one of the enemies turning around and cloak might not be enough to save you. What I would often do is run away a bit, preferably break los, and then come back for the dude investigating dead comrades

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

The Wall.

Why not Melkor in his current disguise?

 

[Darth Roxor]

i thought that green tiles are just for you, not for the bodies?
Likely what happened was one of the enemies turning around and cloak might not be enough to save you. What I would often do is run away a bit, preferably break los, and then come back for the dude investigating dead comrades

No, what happened was that the tile the dead dude was standing on was green (and out of anyone's sight), but when he fell to the ground, his head protruded out of that green tile into a yellow one and therefore was spotted by a live dude.

 

[Elhoim]

i thought that green tiles are just for you, not for the bodies?
Likely what happened was one of the enemies turning around and cloak might not be enough to save you. What I would often do is run away a bit, preferably break los, and then come back for the dude investigating dead comrades

No, what happened was that the tile the dead dude was standing on was green (and out of anyone's sight), but when he fell to the ground, his head protruded out of that green tile into a yellow one and therefore was spotted by a live dude.

Green/yellow are based on your ability to sneak, not the dead's body. IIRC, they are seen on tiles of 30 or higher (you can press ALT to see the tile value).

 

[Darth Roxor]

you men appear to have a problem understanding so allow me to illustrate

In the upper part is the premise. Dude A is looking west, so he sees everything in rows 1 and 2. He doesn't see dude B who is in row 3 and who is looking NW.

In the lower part is what happens when I shank dude B from row 4. He gets shanked while standing in row 3 where he should be unseen by A. But my gigabrain protag decides to toss his corpse forward so that his head can land in row 2 where it'll be seen by dude A, meaning I'll get detected on A's turn.

 

[Modron]

You sure he wasn't alerted by the noise of the takedown?

 

[Darth Roxor]

no, dude was within non-alerted thresholds

 

[FreshCorpse]

Will it be waiting for me when I get back or should I take it now? It's a cool fight, but I want to know whether I should dump more time into it or wait until it becomes more achieveable.

it will be gone. It doesnt have anything cool, you will instead be fighting with many of its brothers.
tips: firefighter helmet, energy armor, apply bleeding if possible, use energy weapons

Thanks for those tips - energy pistol absolutely nuked it first time. Don't know why I didn't try that before. Soz for calling you a NEET in the other thread

 

[Tavar]

So whos doing the CODEX REVIEW? and whens it out?

I've thought about doing one. Not sure what the process is, though.

 

[AdolfSatan]

You ask ChatGPT to write one for you (make sure to tell it to use codexian language), modify it slightly and add screenshots, send it to the overlords so that they can process it through another instance of ChatGPT, and then it gets posted.

At least that’s how I assume reviews must be written nowadays.

 

[Tavar]

On a different note: What are your favourite combat feats? I liked "Master Blaster" in the end game where you have energy weapons, but I'm not sure whether stuff like "Guns, lots of Guns", "Sharpshooter" or "Big Game Hunter" are worth it.

 

[jackofshadows]

Second Wind is pretty fucking good and makes gameplay more fun. W/o Critical Thinker crits are not worth that much, essential for crit stacking, obviously.

Big game hunter... yeah it's not that strong by itself but penetration might be very important for some builds I think, like SMG ones. Sharpshooter is pretty weak, I think so too yeah. There're so few intances where range matters in this game. Guns, lots of guns - seems good only for stacking reaction, yes. Might be wrong as sometimes accuracy is an issue. Master Blaster is amazing for the end game, sure.

Range specialization ones are very strong on release, which makes sense. Opportunist is pretty good in general since ammo isn't an issue at all.

 

[Volrath]

Haven't followed this one at all, is this another teleportation simulator like AoD?

 

[lukaszek]

Soz for calling you a NEET in the other thread

i might be eating instant scallops at 7/11 but calling me neet is indeed taking it too far

Don't know why I didn't try that before

extra tip: when you pick your attack(included aimed) and hover over enemy, it will show all 3 dmg types DT. You can not only pick best weapon but also least protected body part

I've thought about doing one. Not sure what the process is, though.

you write a thing, send it to infi, he doesnt reply for few weeks, then you send it to roxor, ping him every few weeks, some back and forth corrections happen, optional discussion about sharks and cool facts from their life, then its sent to mysterious codex internal body. At this point 2 more months pass and when you already forgot about whole thing - its posted

 

[flushfire]

On a different note: What are your favourite combat feats? I liked "Master Blaster" in the end game where you have energy weapons, but I'm not sure whether stuff like "Guns, lots of Guns", "Sharpshooter" or "Big Game Hunter" are worth it.

Depends on the gun IMO. For SMG I'd say Gunfighter is essential.

Sharpshooter is weak, same as lots of Guns.

I always take Fast Draw on at least 1 character.

Master Blaster is great, yeah, but I think the energy shotguns & SMGs aren't all that, so I never take it on both.

Critical Thinker for anyone tagging CS, or the sneaker, or the Pistolero.

Controlled Burst is great with SMGs, not so much with everything else as the Str requirement is pretty steep.

I rank Big Game Hunter higher than Opportunist, but I only take it after the Factory.

 

[agris]

nice example of Vince's dark satire

"desired nothing so much"

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

Defeating Mother was possible even with a squishy talker MC, as long as the rest of the party hid behind a shielded Jed from the turrets and snipers. A total of 3 pulse grenades and one stasis did it.
Removing Azrael from the equation is doable in the tunnels if you've softened them up with the right faction assist. Endgame, Zeta and Eva knock off at least one if not two party members on the alpha strike.
It does not seem possible to get even a tagged electronics to 10 without saving at least one token for it. I don't think even a fully upgraded Romeo would make the difference.
Even so, I made some build mistakes.
Edit: Stupid me. Always cloak your squishies.

 

[lukaszek]

It does not seem possible to get even a tagged electronics to 10 without saving at least one token for it. I don't think even a fully upgraded Romeo would make the difference.

not sure about tokens, there are opportunities that require sneaking though. Also pick electronics checks always whenever got a choice

 

[NewGuy]

Just finished the game and really enjoyed it.
The last time I was so hooked was JA3. And the time before that... ummm... can't really remember.

The pros:
- Good writing. Concise most of the time, and verbose when necessary.
- Good combat.
- Good graphics and soundtrack (pity that there are only a handful of tracks, though...).
- Fucking excellent quick travel mechanism! I can't understand why some people here don't like it. Do you really prefer to slog around the map back and forth? why?? You wanna visit a vendor to buy a grenade? BAM! you teleport right to him. You wanna return to the depths of Mission Control to tackle a fight that was too difficult for you before? BAM! you're there. This allows you to feel that 100% of the time that you spent in this game was actually spent on gameplay and not on mundane activities (well, maybe except time wasted sorting armor. More on that later...)

The cons:
- No backstory for the factions. You are just thrown in the middle of a conflict, and are required to pick a side without any prior knowledge. Sure, you know what those factions are in broad strokes, but you barely have the opportunity to learn about them in-game. For example, the Jonas vs Braxton decision. You cannot walk around town and ask NPCs for their opinion or learn about the faction leaders somehow. You just choose randomly. It's probably because the character, as someone who spent their entire life on the ship should know it, but the player does not.
- As others also pointed out, the Habitat and the Heart were too rushed.
- All weapon types behave in a very similar way. Because all the combat in the game takes place in close quarters, range is pretty meaningless. This causes most weapons to behave roughly the same. For example, there is little difference between a shotgun and a sniper rifle if 90% of the fights are at (or slightly longer than) the shotgun's effective range...
- Too many armor pieces. Sure, I like cool loot as the next guy, but after receiving a 5/5/6 DR armor, then a 5/6/5, then 6/5/5, and so on, it can become quite tideous sifting through all the garbage until you find an actual upgrade for your current one.

In conclusion, although I mentioned quite a few cons, the best metric by which I judge games is how hard it was for me to end my gaming sessions and go to sleep in order to function as a half-decent human being at work in the next day. And while playing CS, it was very, very hard.

I really hope that this game will be successful enough so that ITS will be able to make another one. Or a sequel at least. Or a horse (frog?) armor DLC...

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

For example, the Jonas vs Braxton decision. You cannot walk around town and ask NPCs for their opinion or learn about the faction leaders somehow. You just choose randomly.

Killing the pimp is always the good choice.

 

[flushfire]

- Good writing. Concise most of the time, and verbose when necessary.

Disagree with this. Quite a few instances where it was unnecessarily verbose. First time meeting Gideon is an example. There's no need to describe the NPC's portrait, and the part about you hearing about the stories of how he got his scars is confusing, just a minute ago you were asking Earl who these guys were. Then there are times where blocks of text are dedicated to just activating a random object, but then lacking when it comes to IMO important details like the monk's attempts to reach the bridge, or like you said, the Jonas vs Braxton conflict.

 

[agris]

For example, the Jonas vs Braxton decision. You cannot walk around town and ask NPCs for their opinion or learn about the faction leaders somehow. You just choose randomly.

Killing the pimp is always the good choice.

It’s really a shame. We get this in the Shuttle Bay, and a diffuse version with the Big 3, but is sorely lacking in the Pit.

 

[Lhynn]

- Good writing. Concise most of the time, and verbose when necessary.

Doesnt say anything interesting.

Good combat.

How is it good combat? Its serviceable, but barely. It features the worst combat out of all the games they have made.

Good graphics and soundtrack (pity that there are only a handful of tracks, though...).

Elaborate on this, I found the soundtrack to be absolutely forgettable and the graphics are nothing to write home about.

Fucking excellent quick travel mechanism!

I dont disagree, at least the pain is over faster. In most games I enjoy or dont mind moving around, in this one I wished I could finish shit faster.

No backstory for the factions

Rushed product, nothing feels finished, nothing feels polished, the base gameplay loop is solid, but it manages to be inferior to previous offerings.

All weapon types behave in a very similar way.

Yes, which is why I cant believe you said the combat is good, theres no variety, theres nothing interesting to find there, its a check list.

Too many armor pieces

Cant have too many armor pieces, Siege of Avalon proved that. Take it back you heretic.
Honestly its about the only thing I liked about the game, finding different pieces, mixing and matching. In the end it was meaningless, because you could tell the game was designed for you to have X values at Y point in the game, may as well have done away with the armor system entirely.
You never got the feeling of finding good stuff that changes how you approach encounters like in fallout when you got better armor at an earlier stage than you should have, or how you felt struggling because you didnt have good armor for the stage you were at. The whole multiple pieces system is just not suitable for the game as is.

It really does feel like a lot of decisions were made for an entirely different game than what we ended up with.

 

[Van-d-all]

no, dude was within non-alerted thresholds

This is really odd. I had a ragdoll glitch over five squares away in final Factory stealth mission, but the body was still lootable only from the square he was killed - explicitly saying it's out of reach when standing on the tile with the body, so it actually seemed that the ragdolls are just visual.

Note that the tile colors only apply to the CURRENT placement of NPCs and cameras, when they move all bets are off - you can get detected even in a non color tile, if something actually looks there in their turn.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

Getting the three speech skills to 9 by Habitat when tagged is a breeze. I haven't seen a single '10' gated option.