Colony Ship - State of the Game

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Spaceman
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The state of the game update for Colony Ship announces that it has reached a playable state for the first time. Screenshots at the link.

After nearly 2 years of work we finally have a playable build, which is very exciting. First, we finally get to see how things work in-game, not on paper, and second, it's great to see the game rapidly changing with every daily update. It's very rough, of course, as it's the First Iteration: a promise of things to come rather than an actual game, but the promise IS there and it's a good thing. Right now you can talk to people, fight, loot bodies, increase skills and equip new gear. The dialogue scripts are working like a charm, so you can go through all the fights and get one of 5 endings. The AI is doing a pretty good job seeking cover, flanking, and using different attacks. Collapsible textbox, pop-up attack icons with tooltips, status icons that tell you which enemies your character has a line of sight on, if the enemies are in cover, and most importantly, if you're still in cover when the enemies are flanking you; the cover provides the highest bonus when the cover is between you and the enemy; less when the enemy is at an angle), etc.

The only feature that's not done yet is the gadgets (energy shield and such), which gives us time to focus on the basic mechanics, iron them out, then introduce the gadgets. The armor sets are almost done, waiting to be textured. Plus tons of small things like various GUI improvements, proper textbox messages that show rolls Battle Brothers style (it's much easier to accept missing 3 times in a row when you see what you're rolling), blood splatters, a balance pass or two (changed AP from DEX+10 to DEX*1.5+5, working on the attack and weapon stats now), the cursor, etc. All in all, I'd say we need 2 months to get the combat system into shape before we start beta-testing, then another month before we release it.

It's longer than we expected but late is always better than never. In comparison, it took us over 5 years to reach this point with AoD (due to working part-time and being inexperienced), so overall the game is progressing nicely.

Anyway, here are some screens. Keep in mind, that's it's work in progress, as rough as the very first build can be:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your families.
Click to expand...
More information.
 
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Agreed. I may not actually play it on day one, but they'll get the money from me right off the bat. They earned that and more after all the fun and sheer bliss I enjoyed while playing AoD.
 
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AoD was a huge success?
 
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As an excellent game to play, I'd qualify it as a stellar success, myself. I've no idea what the sales were, nidling things like that are of little interest to me, but as for AoD itself, I'll likely be replaying it for the rest of my days. The profit a game makes is way down on my list as far as importance is concerned, or in actually rating the game itself.
 
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Looks interesting, though a bit crate-y. :p
Perhaps mixing it up a bit with other env props?
Are they planning to add perk system, it could use a more open/flexible mechanics? AOD was well designed from core rpg standpoint, but too dry and rigid for fun experience ( put points into x, then only use x to gain exp to put points into x to etc, etc)
 
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BoboTheMighty said:
Looks interesting, though a bit crate-y. :p
Perhaps mixing it up a bit with other env props?
Click to expand...
It's a container town sitting at the bottom of one of the cargo holds.

qn2xR6e.gif

The other locations look very differently.

Are they planning to add perk system, it could use a more open/flexible mechanics?
Click to expand...
Yes, there are over 40 feats at the moment.
 
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It looks much more in line with my preferences than AoD, which is cool.

Have to agree with Bobo that AoD was dry as dust - and too focused on replayability at the cost of content.

Excited to see how this is turning out.
 
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