Incline Colony Ship Combat Beta Thread

[conan_edw]

JUST CLICKED ON IT AND IT STARTED DOWNLOADING!

 

[Vault Dweller]

It is now 12:01 am in my timezone, and as the Player Character my timezone controls. Yet, the "download demo" button just refreshes the screen without downloading anything. This is not justice, I will not be denied access to what is almost certainly GOTY 2020 & 2021!

I just woke up (6:32 am here) and clicked on the release button. So give it a try and let me know if it works.

 

[Infinitron]

It is now 12:01 am in my timezone, and as the Player Character my timezone controls. Yet, the "download demo" button just refreshes the screen without downloading anything. This is not justice, I will not be denied access to what is almost certainly GOTY 2020 & 2021!

I just woke up (6:32 am here) and clicked on the release button. So give it a try and let me know if it works.

Is there going to be a release announcement post or trailer or whatever?

 

[Infinitron]

From yesterday: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/648410/view/2223031551505674491

Combat Demo will be released tomorrow - Apr 15.
We salute those who are about to die.

As the title says, the hopefully long-awaited combat demo will be released tomorrow. A public release, even if it's only a combat beta, is a big milestone, as it's the foundation on which the rest of the game will be built. All the key features are there: the character system, increase-by-use skills, the combat system and AI, party mechanics, dialogue, inventory, pathfinding, etc. It's a game in itself, which is why it took so long to get to this stage.

I can talk some more about this journey and its emotional impacts, but instead let's talk about something that really matters - how are you going to survive in the demo? I know, I know. Just the other day you killed three dragons and fifty two ogres, so why should you worry about some malnourished humans coveting what little you have? Well, I think you should, so here are some friendly tips:

• You'll die. A lot. If that's a deal breaker to you, do yourself a favor and walk away. There's plenty of stress in real life, why add more?
  
• The tyranny of numbers: stats, skills, derived stats, feats, weapon stats, attack types, armor, range - anything that has some kinda number scribbled next to it - matter a lot, so choose them with care. If you don't like paying attention to numbers, there's a good chance you won't do well in combat.
  
• Your enemies use the exact same system, so if you see something that works well for them, it will work well for you too. Learn from your enemies because at this point they understand the system (via the combat AI) better than you do. Then (and only then) can you have your revenge.
  
• Different weapons require different tactics, feats, and gear. If your melee fighter blindly charges at five enemies with machine guns, don't be surprised if they promptly turn your character into Swiss cheese. You need high Evasion, boosted by a Distortion Field generator, you need smoke grenades (ranged penalty is much higher than melee penalty) and ideally thermal vision goggles. They can't hit what they can't see. Keep in mind that your rangers might find themselves on the receiving end one day.
  
• Even within the same class, different weapons are designed for different things. Long barrel pistols are designed for range and marksmanship. Revolvers for speed and reaction fire. Multi-barrel pistols are for double shots. So using a multi-barrel pistol in single-fire mode over some range would be a mistake whereas using it to deal with people who tend to get in your face would be a perfectly fine choice.
  
• Your THC (to-hit chance) will be low at first. We strongly suggest grabbing a specialization feat to raise your to-hit chance by 10 as soon as possible. It's not a mandatory feat but it will make things easier while you're struggling to survive. Pressing ALT while aiming will expand the targeting info and show the THC breakdown. The five main components that make your enemies hard to hit are:
  • their evasion ability (skill modified by feats, implants, and armor)
    
  • cover (either flank them or flush them out with poison grenades)
    
  • gadget (distortion field will make them very hard to hit but the effect doesn't last long)
    
  • your weapon's range (you lose accuracy with each tile beyond the effective range)
    
  • penalties inflicted upon your character via aimed attacks, smoke or flashbang grenades (better gear will help you reduce these penalties).
• There are no difficulty modes but there are 3 different ways to generate Random Numbers used to determine if you hit or miss: truly random (anything goes), lightly adjusted (numbers are drawn like cards from a deck, meaning you can't draw the same number twice under the deck is reshuffled), and heavily adjusted (the number of consecutive misses in a row is limited based on your THC, so no more missing 3 times in a row if your THC is 80%). Keep in mind that your enemies will use the same RNG too and would enjoy hitting the target more often.
  
• When in doubt about something, check the tooltips. We did a good job explaining the mechanics and values in tooltips, so if you wonder, for example, why your character has only 15 action points instead of 17 he or she is supposed to have, hover your mouse over the stat in question and you'll see that the armor penalty has reduced your AP by 2 points.

Good luck tomorrow. Looking forward to your feedback.

 

[Vault Dweller]

It is now 12:01 am in my timezone, and as the Player Character my timezone controls. Yet, the "download demo" button just refreshes the screen without downloading anything. This is not justice, I will not be denied access to what is almost certainly GOTY 2020 & 2021!

I just woke up (6:32 am here) and clicked on the release button. So give it a try and let me know if it works.

Is there going to be a release announcement post or trailer or whatever?

We completely forgot about the trailer (Nick was the only one who finally passed a perception check and remembered that the trailer is old and doesn't show any gameplay, but it was almost midnight, so oh well...).

 

[Infinitron]

It is now 12:01 am in my timezone, and as the Player Character my timezone controls. Yet, the "download demo" button just refreshes the screen without downloading anything. This is not justice, I will not be denied access to what is almost certainly GOTY 2020 & 2021!

I just woke up (6:32 am here) and clicked on the release button. So give it a try and let me know if it works.

Is there going to be a release announcement post or trailer or whatever?

We completely forgot about the trailer (Nick was the only one who finally passed a perception check and remembered that the trailer is old and doesn't show any gameplay, but it was almost midnight, so oh well...).

I assume that means there will be a post.

Is the demo Steam only?

 

[Vault Dweller]

It is now 12:01 am in my timezone, and as the Player Character my timezone controls. Yet, the "download demo" button just refreshes the screen without downloading anything. This is not justice, I will not be denied access to what is almost certainly GOTY 2020 & 2021!

I just woke up (6:32 am here) and clicked on the release button. So give it a try and let me know if it works.

Is there going to be a release announcement post or trailer or whatever?

We completely forgot about the trailer (Nick was the only one who finally passed a perception check and remembered that the trailer is old and doesn't show any gameplay, but it was almost midnight, so oh well...).

I assume that means there will be a post.

I made one yesterday, the one you quoted above. It says the demo will be released tomorrow. I assume that most people will be able to figure out that tomorrow is today!

Is the demo Steam only?

For now. Meaning we were focused on the mechanics and balance and didn't have time to worry about anything else. Now we're bracing for impact. Testing the demo with 50 people is one thing, a few thousand people playing it is another. When the dust settles we'll worry about marketing.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Downloading. I am on 90 hours week but I am WFH due to Corona chan anyway so might as well take 1-hour break to try this up.

Considering this is VD game and combat-focused it means that those 2 characters will be a complete cripple with a face even mother can't love, have one and a half legs, is lobotomized, but if I just put the rest of the points into gun-related status and skills and I should be fine right?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Considering this is VD game and combat-focused it means that those 2 characters will be a complete cripple with a face even mother can't love, have one and a half legs, is lobotomized, but if I just put the rest of the points into gun-related status and skills and I should be fine right?

What 2 people? You can have a 4-people party. I wanted to take a screen with all 4 but the fuckers kept dying on me.

Overall, it's much harder to minmax this thing than AoD. You need CHA to have more party members, you need INT to have more tagged skills, you need CON to last a turn longer, etc.

 

[Infinitron]

You should try to see if GOG will agree to carry the demo. They do that sometimes.

 

[Vault Dweller]

You should try to see if GOG will agree to carry the demo. They do that sometimes.

I assume the next two weeks will be hectic - processing feedback, fixing issues, adding some missing assets (mainly hair styles and beards - you can't be an adventurer without a manly beard or at least a dastardly moustache), extra portraits, etc which means frequent build updates. It's much easier and less time consuming to update one build rather than two or three (we had to update 3 builds for AoD: Steam, GOG, and BMT (direct sales) which took awhile).

 

[conan_edw]

Infinitron Will there be a separate thread for the beta?


spoiler for one of the answers from the Character Creation:

Spoiler

Reminds me of a certain game ending

 

[InD_ImaginE]

The opening dialogue is nice. A bit too partisan to my taste but you clearly make religious zealotry idiocy to be incredibly... zealous that I know which faction I am going to reject in the full game.

And considering this is the Codex and VD is Codexian of course in the ending the most zealot idiot conservative choice will have the best ending, will it Vault Dweller ?

But no, jokes aside, even the opening narratives choice set the mood quite well. As as I said, few of them a bit too partisan for my taste but I guess it sets the mood quite well that the current society is partisan in the ship.

 

[Horvatii]

--- software mouse tied to fps, i have a shit laptop
- its way to dark by default, had to up brightness and gamma
- took me a second to recognize the skill tagging square...
- you ought to display the graze chance numerically with the hit chance otherwise chars with maxed per and dex will see stuff like this

-- killed the guy, cant exit the arena

 

[Elhoim]

It should be already out.

 

[Vault Dweller]

What happens when you click on the exit?

 

[Sensuki]

Are you going to do a hardware mouse cursor (pls!)?

 

[Horvatii]

I cant find anything to click on. The door with the sign is not clickable.

- men of wö model is very butch...
- mouse cursor is not captured by the window

 

[Sensuki]

To get out you left click on the sign, took me about 30 sec to figure out as well, although mine has an exclamation point

 

[Vault Dweller]

Clicking anywhere on that exit (not just the sign) works fine for me. One tester with an old laptop reported similar issues. Scripts didn't work, he couldn't exit the arena at first, then he kept replaying the same fight, the dead body wasn't removed, etc. Does your laptop meet the engine's requirements?

• 
  Minimum:
  • OS: Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 10
    
  • Processor: 2 GHz Processor or better
    
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    
  • Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTS 450 / Radeon HD 4870 or better
    
  • DirectX: Version 10
    
  • Storage: 5 GB available space

• 
  Recommended:
  • OS: Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 10
    
  • Processor: 2 GHz Processor or better
    
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    
  • Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTX 950 / AMD Radeon R7 370 or better
    
  • DirectX: Version 10
    
  • Storage: 5 GB available space

 

[Horvatii]

- the letter 'w' is in cursive, it looks dumb

Minimum reqs are met and left clicking the Sign works.

 

[Nick]

mouse cursor is not captured by the window

You can use Options -> Controls -> Lock Mouse To Window

 

[conan_edw]

I got a dumb question since I don't know if it's a bug or normal. In AoD we were able to switch between weapons at hand right away so how does it work here? Only one hand slot appears to me in the UI and I have to enter the inventory to equip the other weapon to hand and that sort of don't make sense to me.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I got a dumb question since I don't know if it's a bug or normal. In AoD we were able to switch between weapons at hand right away so how does it work here? Only one hand slot appears to me in the UI and I have to enter the inventory to equip the other weapon to hand and that sort of don't make sen6 to me.

Click on this button.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Dunno if it's been pointed out already, but steam trailer video still displays TNW as the game's name.