Incline Colony Ship RELEASE THREAD

[BING XI LAO]

Underail is an amazing game and is a timeless classic at this point. One of the best Post ap and turn based games in existence BUT...... for the life of me I cant understand why people would defend DC section. It is way way too bloated, boring and long. Best way is too finish your playthrough just before it starts.

You don't need to skip it, just read a guide so that you only go through the necessary parts.

 

[lukaszek]

Underail is an amazing game and is a timeless classic at this point. One of the best Post ap and turn based games in existence BUT...... for the life of me I cant understand why people would defend DC section. It is way way too bloated, boring and long. Best way is too finish your playthrough just before it starts.

non sneaky pipeworker spotted

 

[GloomFrost]

Underail is an amazing game and is a timeless classic at this point. One of the best Post ap and turn based games in existence BUT...... for the life of me I cant understand why people would defend DC section. It is way way too bloated, boring and long. Best way is too finish your playthrough just before it starts.

You don't need to skip it, just read a guide so that you only go through the necessary parts.

That's not really a point, is it?

 

[BING XI LAO]

Underail is an amazing game and is a timeless classic at this point. One of the best Post ap and turn based games in existence BUT...... for the life of me I cant understand why people would defend DC section. It is way way too bloated, boring and long. Best way is too finish your playthrough just before it starts.

You don't need to skip it, just read a guide so that you only go through the necessary parts.

That's not really a point, is it?

I think it's fun when you cut its length drastically by metagaming.

 

[TheDarkUrge]

Underrail didnt have an ending and its slog combat irritated me
Colony ship did have an ending and didnt irritate me

It's obvious which game is superior

 

[toro]

Also love how the game has better QoL features than bigger/AAA releases - I'm honestly struggling to say which other game offers fast travel to points of interest inside a single map. When I saw that feature, I knew I was gonna give the game a positive rating just for that.

Fallout. Insomnia.

 

[Beans00]

Underrail didnt have an ending and its slog combat irritated me
Colony ship did have an ending and didnt irritate me

It's obvious which game is superior

95% of members here will say Underrail. You're probably mad you suck too much at Underrail to beat it.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Fallout, AOD, Colony Ship, Underrail...
All of them great games. Each of them loads of fun.

 

[notpl]

Colony Ship really does not belong with those other three, even if I enjoyed it a lot and consider AoD one of the best games ever made. Colony Ship chapter 1 will forever linger in our hearts as the possible first act of an all-time great RPG, but the subsequent game we received did not live up to that. Bringing up Fallout or Underrail just makes Colony Ship's later chapters look that much worse by comparison.

 

[Beans00]

Fallout, AOD, Colony Ship, Underrail...
All of them great games. Each of them loads of fun.

Colony ship was not voted into the RPGcodex top 70, lol. Shit game.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Fallout, AOD, Colony Ship, Underrail...
All of them great games. Each of them loads of fun.

Colony ship was not voted into the RPGcodex top 70, lol. Shit game.

Beany being a meany.

 

[Optimist]

I finally played this through. Bought it on day 1, gave up on it after becoming unhappy with my build a few hours in, and then left it to ferment as life went on. I was traveling quite a bit recently and ended up deciding to give it another go - and I'm very happy I've done it.

I will now add about 6500 characters to what was already discussed to death

I wasn't exactly expecting to have fun while heading into it. I liked the premise, but my opinion on Age of Decadence is that it was an interesting experience, but not exactly a fun game for me to play through. I think I called it an "adventure game where you pick all your items at the beginning", to disagreement of some esteemed codexers. It left enough of an impression that I had been waiting for CS ever since it was announced, though, and grabbed it as soon as it appeared. I still approached it with the mindset of going through an auteur experience - which I think might have helped.

Enough has been said about the graphics, so I don't think there's any merit in going over those in too much detail. I've occasionally had difficulties figuring out what was background and what was clickable and how to get to certain places, but I think it was at least partially dependent on the lighting conditions I was in, which mostly weren't the best.

I must say I loved the music, though. There wasn't too much of it, but the combination of sentimental guitars and winds worked well. The occasional western-y themes fading in and out were an amazing fit, despite sounding like they shouldn't be.

The story had a fun premise, but I think it sabotaged itself a bit by setting up expectations of providing something different than it eventually delivered. The beginning seems to suggest that you'll be playing grand politics and ethics management in a semi-open world through the game, but at the end of the day, it's an SF journey movie, with occasional Vancian politicking serving as adventures of the day. I saw opinions of the game feeling unfinished, but I don't think I agree - it just naturally becomes more focused by the end. You're supposed to travel, becoming sort of a (Anti)Hero of the Ship while at it, not spending too much time in any single place. I spoiled myself of the twist, but I don't really think it popped in gameplay - althought it was a nice one. I liked the theme of how being a slick bastard lets you save your skin over and over again, but that violence is necessary to achieve your actual goals. It did feel like a good portion of the character sheet went unused, though - the initial questionnaire checking what does your character believe in seemingly served nothing but to fill out a few useless dials.

When I played CS for the first time I went with the "proper" difficulty level, but wanted something easier the second time around. Things ended up feeling too easy on the Hero difficulty, though. Ideally, I'd take the underdog combat difficulty level, with the hero character adventuring mode, so that the combat would require some effort, but with the game world providing enough options for the player to play with and avenues of exploration.

Since I played as a smart, charismatic problem-solver, most of my character development boiled down to clicking on everything with my MC, with companions specializing in various weapon types. I tried having Faythe be the rogue of the party, but sneaking itself can solve very few problems. You need technical skills to really do anything, and you need to do things in stealth to actually level it up so the plan failed miserably in the long run. It was a shame - I liked the stealth system, and I think it was a good addition. I know that Dungeon Rats-like expansion is not planned for CS, but if I lived in an alternate timeline it would be fun to play Starship Sneakers.

Doing things felt fairly mindless, with a few trips back to earlier areas to gather some more precious learning points - in gameplay, my main character-related choices were things like whether I wanted to focus on streetwise or persuasion during dialogue, or computers versus lockpicking for doors. Still, the leveling system worked in the context of the game, and I have a soft spot for inventory-and-feat-focused character progression.

Interacting with the systems still felt odd. If I were to put why into words, it'd go something like this: utilizing my skills and observing the results of my actions felt a bit too rushed. It was always the character trying to solve the problem and not me as a player, and the results felt a bit too immediate. E.g I sicced the turrets on Shadow and his entourage, but rather than being able to observe the glorious massacre, the game world's status immediately updated to where he and his team were already shot to hell. Similarly, convincing NPCs to do what you ask of them leads to instant results. At the same time, I felt I had to guess what were the possible solutions that the development team had in mind, without knowing what might become available in the future. E.g I did try to set up the independent Pit as well as I could in the early-to-mid game, but was then saddled with a quest to get it to submit to my faction. It feels like in Fallouts there'd be an option to discuss it with the folks in charge; being unable to find any conversation options suggesting that it was possible I've done what I felt the game required of me and debated Jonas to hell and back, only to read afterward that it was actually possible to finish with the independent Pit.

Pistols proved to be pretty meh, same thing for SMGs (although the energy ones carried me through a few, difficult fights). Rifles were the workhorse of any encounter. Melee felt a bit underpowered, although I did focus on blades with consensus apparently being that clubs are a bit stronger. There was a wide variety of encounters, with a bunch of them feeling unique. I think the one I liked the most was the Monks trying to intercept my faction trying to move the thing through Hydroponics - it would've been a treat on the higher difficulty.

One odd addition mechanics-wise was the grid-based inventory, which felt a bit superfluous seeing how it was bottomless at the same time.

The game world remained interesting throughout my playthrough. I liked the visuals of the Heart a lot. A few story hooks felt unexplained to me (why do the mutants believe they'll be able to handle settling on Proxima well after getting accommodated to the radioactive furnaces of the Ship? I did not buy the explanation of the leadership of the Ship as to why not to reveal the big twist during the Mutiny), but this didn't impair my enjoyment of the game or the believability of the game world. It's a shame that the zones you visit don't change a bit more, no real new quests appear, etc, but this plays into this being a focused experience after all.

All in all I enjoyed CS a bit more than AoD. While this will not end up being one of my top games, it is an experience that's well worth playing through - although I don't think anyone on Codex needs convincing about that.

 

[Beans00]

Another colony ship cuck Tavar added me to his ignore list. I have destroyed this games reputation and bankrupted ITS morally. Enjoy being unemployed fuckwads.

 

[lukaszek]

Since I played as a smart, charismatic problem-solver, [...], with companions

thats not a route with any chest hair

 

[Optimist]

Since I played as a smart, charismatic problem-solver, [...], with companions

thats not a route with any chest hair

I admit that playing a Con 10 regenerating murder machine with a big stick felt tempting. Modern gamedev did drum the fact that smart-asses get the most content into me, though, and I'm not sure if I have it in me to do another playthrough.

 

[lukaszek]

I admit that playing a Con 10 regenerating murder machine with a big stick felt tempting. Modern gamedev did drum the fact that smart-asses get the most content into me

dont be shamed into not playing your alter ego

 

[notpl]

I recently replayed this solo and found it much more engaging than the full-party playthrough I did on release. Kind of a shame that's the only way to keep the game engaging beyond chapter 1, since they seem to have put so much work into the party concept.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Another colony ship cuck Tavar added me to his ignore list. I have destroyed this games reputation and bankrupted ITS morally. Enjoy being unemployed fuckwads.

How rude

 

[Tavar]

Another colony ship cuck Tavar added me to his ignore list. I have destroyed this games reputation and bankrupted ITS morally. Enjoy being unemployed fuckwads.

I'm only seeing this now. For the record: I temporarily put you on ignore after witnessing your retarded battle with Swen and this completely brain-dead post:

The only thing that mattered to me: Before LOD gambling was way better.
After LOD gambling sucked ass.
I never made a runesword because I'm not autistic, I just played the game with my brother and sister and kids from school. It's a pretty easy game until you get to hell difficulty. Which isn't particularly fun but I think we beat it a few times.

A big problem of mine, in diablo 1 all the characters were pretty normal looking. They even had the sorcerer to represent other ethnic peoples which is nice and inclusive.

I'm not sure anyone else experienced this, but in diablo 2. The Barbarian and druid are too ugly for me to ever use. The assassin is also ugly, probably the ugliest. Then I didn't use the paladin much, or the sorc because... Then the Amazon is whatever but I thought she kind of sucked?
So I was stuck using the Necromancer who kind of looks like Victor Pflug . Good thing the necro is pretty op.

For some reason you immediately noticed (how?) and had a massive melt-down. That said, it's amusing that you think you won this debate and to see how incredibly butt-blasted you are about this game. I'll be sure to nominate you in this year's "most butthurt user" poll.

 

[Beans00]

For some reason you immediately noticed (how?) and had a massive melt-down. That said, it's amusing that you think you won this debate and to see how incredibly butt-blasted you are about this game. I'll be sure to nominate you in this year's "most butthurt user" poll.

Thanks, I am butt hurt about this game and how terrible it is. I fucking hated it, and I'm glad ITS are closing down.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Very bad trolling attempt.

But if you're actually happy that a small studio trying to keep the genre alive is closing, then you're just a shitty human being.

 

[notpl]

Very bad trolling attempt.

But if you're actually happy that a small studio trying to keep the genre alive is closing, then you're just a shitty human being.

I wouldn't say I'm "happy," but if they can't continue to make RPGs at this scale, while there are indie developers are doing more, and better, and with less, then I think it just wasn't meant to be. ITS seems to be fundamentally untenable, or to have unreasonable expectations of return.

 

[Saduj]

The claim that there are a bunch of indie developers out there who have made three or more better games than AoD, Dungeon Rats and Colony Ship over the last 10 years certainly needs some examples. Seems like a ridiculous load of shit to me.

Edit: notpl

 

[notpl]

The claim that there are a bunch of indie developers out there who have made three or more better games than AoD, Dungeon Rats and Colony Ship over the last 10 years certainly needs some examples. Seems like a ridiculous load of shit to me.

Edit: notpl

Do you really need me to make a list of working indie RPG developers? ATOM RPG was larger, better-looking, more expansive than either of Iron Tower's games and they've seemingly had no trouble moving on from it to an enormous expansion, blossoming out into pseudo-sequel, and now a new game entirely. Hero's Adventure: Road to Passion is absolutely massive, despite being its studio's first game, and they've continued to support it with a year of non-stop DLC-sized free updates for seemingly no reason except sheer work ethic and gratitude to their players. Wandering Sword is much the same, except more linear and far higher quality in the writing, storytelling and visuals departments. Obviously no one on this forum needs me to mention Underrail.

Does Iron Tower have the chops to stand next to these other devs? Absolutely. In fact, I'd say Colony Ship has the best combat out of anything I've just mentioned, and I don't need to sing AoD's praises here. But they aren't a fundamentally different species: there's nothing about any of ITS's games to justify some higher cost for success than all these other developers I've named who seem to be flourishing. None of the other devs in my list have come whining to their playerbase about how they simply can't afford to make games anymore because we didn't buy enough copies. I expect I'll enjoy Infusion, Hero's Adventure 2 (if they decide to make one) or Swordhaven far more than I would a sequel to Colony Ship, which kills me to say as someone who loved Age of Decadence after waiting eagerly for it for nearly a decade.

 

[Saduj]

Do you really need me to make a list of working indie RPG developers?

I didn't ask you to make any claims in the first place. But you did and I was wondering what you're talking about. I thought that maybe I have missed out on some good stuff. I liked Atom and the sequel a lot. I think AoD and Dungeon Rats are better games but largely based on personal tastes. I'd put Colony Ship between Atom and the sequel. I enjoyed Underrail very much until the inexplicably bad endgame but yes, I'm very aware of the game's reputation here. I look forward to the sequel. The other two games you mentioned don't interest me and I'm not going to comment on them other than to say that referencing "visuals" given their "everyone is a toddler" art style is a huge matter of taste. I'm glad these people are making these games but, IMO, the market isn't exactly saturated with good crpgs these days, indie or otherwise. You may have broader tastes than I do and feel differently.

Does Iron Tower have the chops to stand next to these other devs? Absolutely. In fact, I'd say Colony Ship has the best combat out of anything I've just mentioned, and I don't need to sing AoD's praises here. But they aren't a fundamentally different species: there's nothing about any of ITS's games to justify some higher cost for success than all these other developers I've named who seem to be flourishing.

I don't really care what it cost them to make the game. I care whether I like the game and feel I got my money's worth and I'm a satisfied customer in that regard.

I completely understand that if a business can't turn a decent profit, it isn't going to be around long. I don't think their failure to make enough money is due to others doing "more and better" but it seems you are right about them doing what they do with "less".

None of the other devs in my list have come whining to their playerbase about how they simply can't afford to make games anymore because we didn't buy enough copies.

I must have missed it. Where did anyone from ITS suggest that the people who enjoy their games should buy more than one copy? I would say this is the kind of accusation that yes, you really need to back up,