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Vince
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« on: April 04, 2017, 02:52:45 pm »

Introducing something new and different isn’t an easy task. A fantasy game like AoD offers many familiar concepts: a local lord in charge of a town, different guilds, rival Houses, traveling preachers, etc. None of it raises any questions or requires any lengthy explanations.

The Colony Ship Game is very different and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and a lot of concepts that need to be explained without overwhelming the player with the new info. That’s one of the reasons you start the game in the Pit, the container town, instead of the much stranger Habitats. It offers some familiarity and gives you plenty of second-hand information from other people.

The Pit will give you two locations: the relatively safe "main street" and the not so safe “bad part of town”. Overall, it will give you more places of interest and things to do than Teron, including an arena that will allow you to test your character fairly early and figure out your limits. Did I say arena? I meant the Courthouse:

    “This, my friend, is the cornerstone of justice in our little town,” he says with pride. “Welcome to the Courthouse.”
         “I thought the Pit was a barbaric outpost where people went to hide from the law.”
    “No, no, far from it! We abide by the Constitution, and much more strictly than those fools in the Habitats. Every accused man in the Pit is guaranteed to have his day in court and face his accuser, just like the Constitution says. If said accuser is unable to make an appearance, an Arbiter appointed by the Court will take his place.”
         “What about the trial?”
    “If the defendant slays his accuser, or the aforementioned Arbiter, he’s cleared of all charges and released. If the defendant falls to the accuser he is declared guilty. Posthumously, of course.”
         “That’s what you call a trial?”
    “All contests conform to the process of law,” he says with a reassuring pat on your shoulder, “and here is where our method is superior: it is immune to the corrupting influence of money. Try to find a system like that in the Habitats. Haw!”
         “You mentioned a job.”
    “We’re running low on legal representation for the prosecution,” he admits with a sad shake of his head. “Lost three Arbiters last week in a string of challenging cases.”

Other notable locations include the Regulators, a local church, a whorehouse, a prison, a gambling den, various stores, and entire town "blocks" occupied by different crews of scavengers and other men of ill repute. They will provide you with some bits of common knowledge as well as quests properly introducing other locations:

Cole:

    “Combat tech and implants.” He taps the data jack on the side of his head. “The good stuff, extracted with care and rehabilitated for my more moneyed customers.”
         “Extracted?”
    “You know they don’t make new ones, so where do you think they come from? Now take a look at this beauty.” Cole dangles a small ball, made of some smooth, shiny substance, from a bundle of ultrathin translucent wires. As it slowly pivots, you see on its reverse side a much worn bar-code and brown spots that look like dried blood.

    “Excellent pedigree,” says Cole.  “Four previous owners, no registered complaints, and still performs up to factory specs. It’s a basic model though, which is why I’d be willing to practically give it to you for twenty chips.”
         “What is it?”
    Cole shows you the recessed lens on the underside, the “pupil” of the device, ringed by an impossibly blue iris.

Solomon Kane:

    “God has everything to do with it!” The preacher moves closer, closer than you like, leaning well into your personal space. “It is by the Lord’s grace alone that the Ship was launched, and by His grace alone shall She arrive at that land He promised us so very long ago.

    “And it was written,” he shouts, the tendons of his neck leaping up, “I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. The words of millennia ago, my son, millennia, for the truth of His word is eternal.”
         “Who are the Canaanites?”
    “Those who dwell in the Promised Land, those who wait open-armed to embrace the righteous when, and only when, we prove our devotion to the Lord.”
         “Do you really believe that?”
    “Did the Israelites not wander the desert for forty years before He allowed them into the Promised Land? Why did they go for so long without a home? They were not ready. The Israelites must first make their children worthy of the Lord’s grace, and only then were those children allowed to set foot in the Promised Land.”

Mags:

    “Take the Exo-Spine as an example. It reinforces your vertebral column and taps your spinal nerve in four different places. The implant makes you stronger than a human being ever evolved to be. Now let’s say that a few months later you get tired of it and want to have it removed. The Exo-Spine is fused directly to eighteen of your thirty-three vertebrae, and the top spinal cord access point is right at the brainstem. Best case scenario, irreversible paralysis. I’ll let you guess the worst case.”
         “Where can I get some implants?”
    “Two places, from the scavengers or from the source. Problem with buying from scavengers is that over time the goods keep getting rarer, and when you find what you want it’s always pricy. The budget conscious customer goes for the second option: do the extractions yourself.”

Ol' Ben:
    “Well,” says the man, scratching his stubble, “the Mutiny drained the ammunition depots pretty fast and that was what, a hundred years ago? The Ship was provisioned with weapons to secure the future colony, not to fight a civil war.”
         “So there are no energy cells left?”
    “I’m sure there are a few cells left here and there, but they’re worth a lot of money, so only a fool would use them to charge a gun. Fortunately, there are less fancy but still effective alternatives.”
         “Such as?”
    “The pipe gun can be a man’s best friend, and makes for a cheap date too. All you need is a good metal pipe and some propellant. The rest is a bonus.”
         “Do you have anything more … sophisticated than pipe guns?”
    “What’s wrong with pipe guns?” The gunsmith stands a little straighter, as if offended. “A bullet from a pipe gun will kill you just as dead as one from a fancier weapon. If your needs run that way, you’ll have to ask around the Habitat. They’ve got all kinds of fancy over there.”
         “Why not make better guns here, in the Pit?”
    “You see anyone around here who’d pay a few hundred for a high quality piece? It’s something called Economics, which I’m not inclined to discuss with you just now. You take your pipe gun, shove it in someone’s face and pull the trigger. It will do the job just fine. Providing it doesn’t explode.”

Speaking of guns, here is some recent stuff for your viewing pleasure:


^ Assault Rifle, Tier 2 (meaning a step above a pipe with a magazine)


^ SMG, Tier 1


^ 1H SMG, Tier 4

The game will have 3 types of firearms X 3 subcategories (like sawed-off, rifle, multi-barrel shotgun) X 5 tiers = 45 unique models plus some varieties and upgrades. That's just the firearms, although admittedly it's the largest weapon group. Melee and Energy weapons will have 3 subcategories X 5 tiers each. Anyway, back to the Pit:

So far we have 12 quests written and mapped out, including a 6-quest local conflict between the Regulators and the self-proclaimed mayor, aka Order that’s not all that great vs Chaos that’s not all that bad. The conflict fits perfectly well into the belief system I mentioned earlier and comes with long-term consequences you’ll be able to experience in-game (i.e. not in the slides). So in one corner we have the challenger:



    Rumor has it that Captain Braxton once served a higher power, that in the days before his crisis of faith and the subsequent falling out with the Church of the Elect he was known as Faithful Gunner Jeremiah Braxton. Speculation about why he left is abundant, but as is often the case no story is more compelling than the others.

    Backed up by a few like-minded men and picking up more willing recruits along the way, Braxton left the Church behind and ended up in the Pit, a place where reliable fighting men are always in demand. Around the time of his arrival, the Brotherhood had started showing a keen interest in the Pit, eager to establish a foothold there. Braxton and his newly christened Regulators offered the good people of the Pit their services and after much debate they were hired to drive the Brotherhood’s men out, which was accomplished with brutal efficiency.

In the other corner we have the incumbent "mayor":



    Wasteland is the affectionate name used to describe the now uncharted miles of scorched corridors and decks that bore the brunt of the fighting during the Mutiny. It is even rumored that the hull has been breached in certain sections, leaving them open to the void of space. This unstable no-man's-land is the principal hunting ground for folks willing to gamble their lives against the chance of finding old and outlawed tech.

    For a scavenger, Jonas was more successful and more ambitious than most. One of the key difficulties for a professional scav is to extract your finds as quickly as possible, since anyone else stumbling across your good fortune will quickly try to make it their own. In order to facilitate more efficient runs into the Wasteland, Jonas set up a base camp in Cargo Hold #3, right next to the action. Such a good idea couldn't remain secret for long, and his fellow scavengers soon began pitching their tents nearby. With its increasing popularity, the camp attracted a growing crowd of traders, whores, and other hangers-on, and people began to see it as a rugged alternative to the Habitats, which promised safety, but insisted on submission in exchange.

    At some point Jonas realized that more money was waiting to be made right there in the Pit, as it had come to be called, than out in the Wasteland. Thus he opened The Promised Land, the finest and only whorehouse in town. The success of this venture, and his own popularity, led to his role today as the de facto mayor of this frontier town.

In case you're wondering the goggles and other gear will be available to your character as well and the inventory will have special slots for goggles and breathing masks. In the next update we'll introduce gadgets and explains how they work.

New concept art:


^ The Pit, top view, will be accessible in-game (like those upper levels in Dungeon Rats). Click here to see the ground level concepts:


^ The Habitat, Living Quarters


^ The Habitat, Public Area

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cb.spike
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« Reply #1 on: April 04, 2017, 03:04:39 pm »

New update. I love this part of month. Portraits look great, artworks look great, writing looks great. I hate that some kind of arena and brothel is mandatory part of nearly every RPG. But I like the "twist" arena on colony ship has so I hope the whorehouse will also be unique.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2017, 03:15:06 pm by cb.spike » Logged
Vince
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« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2017, 03:24:13 pm »

I hate that some kind of arena and brothel is mandatory part of nearly every RPG. But I like the "twist" arena on colony ship has so I hope the whorehouse will also be unique.
The whorehouse is a Deadwood thing, a fitting base of operation for the "mayor", so yes, it will be a fairly unique place. As for the arena, it's the best setup for a combat demo and once it's done, why throw it away?
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Scott
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« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2017, 10:38:35 am »

God. Fucking. Dammit! Everything about this update is on point. It seems like a long time from one to the next but they always deliver. Portraits and concept art are amazing.
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contributed to: Age of Decadence | Dead State | Dungeon Rats | Battle Brothers | Fell Seal:Arbiter's Mark | Stygian
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Wrath of Dagon
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« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2017, 11:48:16 am »

"Who are the Canaanites?”
“Those who dwell in the Promised Land, those who wait open-armed to embrace the righteous when, and only when, we prove our devotion to the Lord.”

Is the preacher intentionally ignorant of the Bible?

Edit:
Quote
Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. 11Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.a 14Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
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Vince
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« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2017, 12:18:46 pm »

He thinks his answer is better than a history/bible lesson.
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Scott
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« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2017, 01:08:43 pm »

Bible's been rewritten several times already, what's a couple more?
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Wrath of Dagon
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« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2017, 01:57:36 pm »

I guess there's a reason he's in the Pit and not the nice area the Church controls, must be a heretic.

Edit: Which made me think of a question, are the factions going to be a mix of good and bad, or mostly bad like in AOD, and are some factions going to be more noble than others?
« Last Edit: April 05, 2017, 02:12:21 pm by Wrath of Dagon » Logged

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Vince
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« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2017, 02:35:35 pm »

I guess there's a reason he's in the Pit and not the nice area the Church controls, must be a heretic.

Edit: Which made me think of a question, are the factions going to be a mix of good and bad, or mostly bad like in AOD, and are some factions going to be more noble than others?
What's a noble political faction? While you're thinking...

A faction shouldn't be defined as universally good or bad. The faction's enemies would be convinced that it's bad and the world would be better off without it. The faction's leaders should have good reasons to do what they do (which their allies would see as good and their enemies as bad) and should have willingness to cross lines when necessary (for the greater good!). No political faction should ever be concerned with world peace (unless in the context of them vanquishing their enemies and ruling supreme) and mankind's well-being (unless in the context of following their rules for they and they alone know what's best for mankind).
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Wrath of Dagon
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« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2017, 02:51:08 pm »

I didn't say "noble", I said "more noble than others." Obviously most human organizations won't be entirely noble (Although for example "Doctors without Borders" might be a candidate.)
Quote
No political faction should ever be concerned with world peace (unless in the context of them vanquishing their enemies and ruling supreme) and mankind's well-being (unless in the context of following their rules for they and they alone know what's best for mankind).
I think that's overly cynical to the point of being unrealistic. Lots of people believe in world peace and don't think they alone know what's good for mankind and seeking to force their will on everyone. Of course a political party is going to prioritize their own power and influence, but that doesn't mean they don't believe in a better future as the end goal. Did FDR wake up every day wanting a better world? I'm convinced he did. Was he willing to do things on the principle that the ends justify the means? Also true.
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Vince
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« Reply #10 on: April 05, 2017, 04:45:49 pm »

Quote
No political faction should ever be concerned with world peace (unless in the context of them vanquishing their enemies and ruling supreme) and mankind's well-being (unless in the context of following their rules for they and they alone know what's best for mankind).
I think that's overly cynical to the point of being unrealistic. Lots of people believe in world peace and don't think they alone know what's good for mankind and seeking to force their will on everyone.
I've never claimed otherwise but we aren't talking about lots of people, we're talking about powerful political organizations that managed to rise to the top and get themselves a seat at the table.  You don't get that far and last that long without crossing a line or two and doing "what needs to be done".

Quote
Of course a political party is going to prioritize their own power and influence, but that doesn't mean they don't believe in a better future as the end goal.
Better future is an awfully subjective goal. Everyone wants and believes in their own version of a better future - the CIA, the Soviets, the Nazi, the Ayatollahs, the USAAF targeting committee that wanted to nuke Kyoto but had to settle for Hiroshima and Nagasaki instead. Had the Soviets won and forced their own brand of better future on the "free world", few people would have thanked them.
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NewAgeOfPower
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« Reply #11 on: April 05, 2017, 06:03:20 pm »

The extremely extended magazine on the T4 SMG looks like it would be problematic in prone fighting; a better workaround for increased munition capacity would changing the angle between ammunition storage and ammo feed, ala FN P90.

Of course, SMGs are rarely used from prone... And there is a T5 SMG... And I don't think your Colony Ship RPG is attempting to reach JA2 levels of tactical complexity...

 Salute Glad to see you guys are on track (and hopefully, on schedule!) with CSG.

I did like the way Underrail handled armor, the choices between vs melee and vs ballistic, flat mitigation, % resist, and multiple damage types, although adherence to realism was compromised.
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Wrath of Dagon
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« Reply #12 on: April 06, 2017, 08:28:31 am »


Quote
Of course a political party is going to prioritize their own power and influence, but that doesn't mean they don't believe in a better future as the end goal.
Better future is an awfully subjective goal. Everyone wants and believes in their own version of a better future - the CIA, the Soviets, the Nazi, the Ayatollahs, the USAAF targeting committee that wanted to nuke Kyoto but had to settle for Hiroshima and Nagasaki instead. Had the Soviets won and forced their own brand of better future on the "free world", few people would have thanked them.
That makes my point though. Not everyone is equally evil and some goals are more noble than others. I understand that it's subjective but equally in the game a faction's goals and actions could be subjectively more or less good or bad. For example undertaking a multi-generational journey into the unknown had to involve some degree of idealism.
« Last Edit: April 06, 2017, 08:31:23 am by Wrath of Dagon » Logged

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Vince
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« Reply #13 on: April 06, 2017, 09:01:44 am »

That makes my point though. Not everyone is equally evil and some goals are more noble than others.
Political goals are usually noble, the outcomes tend to be anything but. The French revolution promised Equality, Liberty, and Fraternity but gave them the Reign of Terror instead:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Terror
"Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France ... but the total number of deaths in France in 1793–96 in only the civil war in the Vendée is estimated at 250,000 counter-revolutionaries and 200,000 republicans. The guillotine, called the "National Razor", became the symbol of the revolutionary cause, strengthened by a string of executions..."

The Russians tried it a century later, promising freedom but delivering terror instead (surprise!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror
"The Red Terror was a campaign of mass killings, torture, and systematic oppression conducted by the Bolsheviks after the beginning of the Russian Civil War in 1918. Soviet historiography describes the Red Terror as having been officially announced in September 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ending about October 1918. However, the term was frequently applied to political repression during the whole period of the Civil War (1918–1922). Estimates for the total number of people killed in the Red Terror range from 10,000 to over one and a half million."

Oliver Cromwell wanted to make the world a better place but gave it the Penal Laws instead:

"The Penal Laws were, according to Edmund Burke "a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man."

Don't even get me started on the Protestants in America:

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote of Massachusetts Puritanism: “The underlying foundation of life in New England was one of profound, unutterable, and therefore unuttered mehalncholy, which regarded human existence itself as a ghastly risk, and, in the case of the vast majority of human beings, an inconceivable misfortune.” And indeed, everything was dour, strict, oppressive, and very religious. A typical Massachusetts week would begin in the church, which doubled as the town meeting hall. There were no decorations except a giant staring eye on the pulpit to remind churchgoers that God was watching them. Townspeople would stand up before their and declare their shame and misdeeds, sometimes being forced to literally crawl before the other worshippers begging for forgiveness. THen the minister would give two two-hour sermons back to back. The entire affair would take up to six hours, and the church was unheated (for some reason they stored all their gunpowder there, so no one was allowed to light a fire), and this was Massachusetts, and it was colder in those days than it is now, so that during winter some people would literally lose fingers to frostbite (Fischer: “It was a point of honor for the minister never to shorten a sermon merely because his audience was frozen”). Everyone would stand there with their guns (they were legally required to bring guns, in case Indians attacked during the sermon) and hear about how they were going to Hell, all while the giant staring eye looked at them.

So life as a Puritan was pretty terrible. On the other hand, their society was impressively well-ordered. Teenage pregnancy rates were the lowest in the Western world and in some areas literally zero. Murder rates were half those in other American colonies. There was remarkably low income inequality – “the top 10% of wealthholders held only 20%-30% of taxable property”, compared to 75% today and similar numbers in other 17th-century civilizations. The poor (at least the poor native to a given town) were treated with charity and respect – “in Salem, one man was ordered to be set by the heels in the stocks for being uncharitable to a poor man in distress”. Government was conducted through town meetings in which everyone had a say. Women had more equality than in most parts of the world, and domestic abuse was punished brutally. The educational system was top-notch – “by most empirical tests of intellectual eminence, New England led all other parts of British America from the 17th to the early 20th century”.

In some ways the Puritans seem to have taken the classic dystopian bargain – give up all freedom and individuality and art, and you can have a perfect society without crime or violence or inequality. Fischer ends each of his chapters with a discussion of how the society thought of liberty, and the Puritans unsurprisingly thought of liberty as “ordered liberty” – the freedom of everything to tend to its correct place and stay there. They thought of it as a freedom from disruption – apparently FDR stole some of his “freedom from fear” stuff from early Puritan documents. They were extremely not in favor of the sort of liberty that meant that, for example, there wouldn’t be laws against wasting time. That was going too far. "

Quote
I understand that it's subjective but equally in the game a faction's goals and actions could be subjectively more or less good or bad.
My goal is to give each faction equally good, compelling, and easy to understand goals. After all the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Quote
For example undertaking a multi-generational journey into the unknown had to involve some degree of idealism.
Of course.
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Oscar
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« Reply #14 on: April 06, 2017, 09:04:32 am »

Edit:
Quote
The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.

I couldn't help but read that quote in Donald's Trump voice.
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"Who has time? But then if we do not ever take time, how can we ever have it?"
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