Colony Ship Early Access Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Bester]

Ongoing discussion on russian reddit about the game https://dtf.ru/games/1764573-prodazhi-colony-ship-ostavlyayut-zhelat-luchshego

What's the takeaway here, that 1200 r is too much for many and they don't know about the ongoing RU localization effort?

I don't know how to interpret this, it's probably just an angry minority, but yeah, they're not happy with the price.
Outraged that the price went x8 and x9.5 in Turkey and Argentina, because a lot of Russian players have changed the Steam region to those two after a ton of publishers went nazi against Russian players. Just giving some context. I don't have an opinion on that. It was probably necessary to correct for hyper inflation or some shit. People always complain.

 

[Vault Dweller]

We changed the US price, the conversion to other currencies was done automatically. Steam recently updated the price matrix, so the increase is significant in some countries (where you could buy the game for a dollar before).

 

[Kamaz]

We changed the US price, the conversion to other currencies was done automatically. Steam recently updated the price matrix, so the increase is significant in some countries (where you could buy the game for a dollar before).

Oh boy. Prompted by the comment I checked our regional price table and, yup, we are selling the game at a dollar. The Steam suggested price in Turkey is 16 times the detail 5 times higher than we have ATM.

 

[Cyberarmy]

We changed the US price, the conversion to other currencies was done automatically. Steam recently updated the price matrix, so the increase is significant in some countries (where you could buy the game for a dollar before).

Oh boy. Prompted by the comment I checked our regional price table and, yup, we are selling the game at a dollar. The Steam suggested price in Turkey is 8 times the detail 5 times higher than we have ATM.

View attachment 35382

And it happened in only 1 year ...
Also it is sad that while 149,00 TL is not that much, many of Turkish gamers will hesitate to give that amount to an indie turn based RPG. While they are paying literal thousands to remakes and live service games...

 

[The Wall]

The YTers we contacted (over 100 people) got Steam keys so they can access it whenever they please (which explains SplatterCat's and Mortismal's second videos). We don't do exclusive content; when a new location or update is ready, it goes to the players first, not the media.

Overall, I wouldn't describe the situation as bad or dire. RPGs in Early Access are a very hard sell (megahits like BG3 are an exceptions, of course), so we'll wait until release and see what happens. We got into Steam festivals like TurnBasedFest and the upcoming TactiCon, which is a big plus. We still have all 'visibility rounds' (we spent all AoD's rounds in EA, which was a mistake), planned post-release updates, etc.

Have you ever thought about doing [LIVE] commentary and QA with YouTubers on release date or for every next Major Update? How would that video format look like? Youtuber (for example: SplatterCatGaming) would be with his small window in left corner, you'd be in right corner (dressed as Space Station Admiral) and game would take the remaining 80% of screen. YouTuber would play game and talk to you, while you'd comment about his gameplay, game itself and answer previosly collected questions from Discord and Forums alongside questions from LIVE audience. Such format is even more suited for Twitch

I honestly don't know why very few if any indie devs do this. Maybe they are too concious about their physical appearance.
Call it: "Colony Ship with [insert YouTuber's Name] & Lead Dev"

 

[The Wall]

RPGs in Early Access are a very hard sell (megahits like BG3 are an exceptions, of course), so we'll wait until release and see what happens.

Professional curiosity - in your experience, is the actual release - for RPGs - bigger than the EA release? I am doing it - EA/full release - for the first time so I have no idea what to expect.

Yes. You can track it with the number of reviews as they correspond to sales.

Vagrus:

King Arthur:

AoD:

Hopefully and almost certainly that should mean graph spike should jump and reach for the stars on Colony Ship's release date
Hey! Will you give juicy discount (25-33%) for AoD+Dungeon Rats to anyone who purchases Colony Ship on release date?
Also ALL Owners of AoD should get additional 10% discount for Colony Ship in first month of release, imo

 

[Sòren]

are there any plans to add another encounter with Morgan in future updates?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Have you ever thought about doing [LIVE] commentary and QA with YouTubers on release date or for every next Major Update?

We're making RPGs for people who like RPGs. We aren't making live shows, events, and documentaries.

Hey! Will you give juicy discount (25-33%) for AoD+Dungeon Rats to anyone who purchases Colony Ship on release date?
Also ALL Owners of AoD should get additional 10% discount for Colony Ship in first month of release, imo

Most likely.

are there any plans to add another encounter with Morgan in future updates?

Yes, once we start working on the Habitat again.

 

[The Wall]

Have you ever thought about doing [LIVE] commentary and QA with YouTubers on release date or for every next Major Update?

We're making RPGs for people who like RPGs. We aren't making live shows, events, and documentaries.

It seems You might be allergic to marketing and $$$ I mean do you seriously expect some fabled game journalist in year 2023, to discover your game and write about it? Is your game about bunch of trannies travelling through space and spreading gayness through Galaxy? No? Then don't expect coverage. I'm not joking. The only way your or any indie game gets talked about in mainstream game news is once it becomes sufficiently popular and impossible to ignore. Not the other way around. You have to do your marketing, because game journalists sure won't, unless there is come juicy controversy. This is not some hyperbolic edgelord post, this is state of game industry in 2023

 

[Kamaz]

Have you ever thought about doing [LIVE] commentary and QA with YouTubers on release date or for every next Major Update?

We're making RPGs for people who like RPGs. We aren't making live shows, events, and documentaries.

It seems You might be allergic to marketing and $$$ I mean do you seriously expect some fabled game journalist in year 2023, to discover your game and write about it? Is your game about bunch of trannies travelling through space and spreading gayness through Galaxy? No? Then don't expect coverage. I'm not joking. The only way your or any indie game gets talked about in mainstream game news is once it becomes sufficiently popular and impossible to ignore. Not the other way around. You have to do your marketing, because game journalists sure won't, unless there is come juicy controversy. This is not some hyperbolic edgelord post, this is state of game industry in 2023

These days midsize publishers (and self-publishing studios) often focus on smaller but more engaged niche audiences rather than overly expensive hit-and-miss mainstream. Especially with hardcore RPGs like this.

 

[norolim]

We're making RPGs for people who like RPGs. We aren't making live shows, events, and documentaries.

These days midsize publishers (and self-publishing studios) often focus on smaller but more engaged niche audiences rather than overly expensive hit-and-miss mainstream. Especially with hardcore RPGs like this.

Sure, but those niche audiences that like RPGs have to know about your game, to buy it. There are hundreds of upcoming RPGs to keep track of, probably close to fifty planned for release in 2023 alone. It's not 2010 anymore and the RPG "niche" market is very saturated today, so some PR work is probably required, if Iron Tower are interested in a wider audience, than the 25 people still active on RPG Codex.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I agree, of course; I just don't think that doing 'live shows' would help us in any way. As mentioned earlier, our focus is on Steam now, especially third-party Steam fest that are becoming more popular: TurnBasedFest, TactiCon, StrategyFest. That's a good way to generate some publicity and awareness.

 

[jackofshadows]

It seems to me that the majority of target audience is already know/heared about CSG. It's the TA that is simply too damn small. Also, trying to bring the wrong kind of audience may result in refunds/negative reviews/bad mouth.

The uncommon si-fi setting, the high bar of entering, no obvious (to a random player) innovations in sight, grim-looking atmosphere etc etc. This shit is doomed.

On the plus side, the graphics are great compared to AoD which is really fucking important and such a game as ATOM RPG which I consider very mediocre and no match for CSG has had success very recently. There's also Sseth who may be still not OD'd by the time of the release and make his decisive review. Who knows. I certanly hope that I'm terribly wrong on this.

 

[Sòren]

i just think that ur product will become successful sooner or later anyway, because it has certain qualities that none other can offer. the ignorant masses always take their time to recognize anything, there are so many examples in entertainment industry, it's too tiresome to list them all.

from a marketing perspective in early access, it would have been better if there was some kind of controversy surrounding this game, because that's the way people need to pay attention. there is no bad publicity etc... look at Baldurs Gate 3 (too many trannies for some) or Kingdome Come (lack of trannies) as examples, or the new Harry Potter game. people just eat that shit up, that's the times we are living in.

 

[Sòren]

what do u think infinitron that u got to roll ur eyes? that the story about black people in medieval ages didn't help Kingdome Come?

i didn't even know that there was a new harry potter game until i heard that someone wants to cancel joanne rowling.

the dynamics in nowadays marketing are obvious. provoke and fuck around, up to a certain point. there is too much potential (like in a battery) between the factions to just leave that without application.

 

[The Wall]

We're making RPGs for people who like RPGs. We aren't making live shows, events, and documentaries.

These days midsize publishers (and self-publishing studios) often focus on smaller but more engaged niche audiences rather than overly expensive hit-and-miss mainstream. Especially with hardcore RPGs like this.

Sure, but those niche audiences that like RPGs have to know about your game, to buy it. There are hundreds of upcoming RPGs to keep track of, probably close to fifty planned for release in 2023 alone. It's not 2010 anymore and the RPG "niche" market is very saturated today, so some PR work is probably required, if Iron Tower are interested in a wider audience, than the 25 people still active on RPG Codex.

Sure, there are indeed hundreds of upcoming indie RPGs, but most are trash design combined with trash 3D assets from asset store, all joined together with glue and duct tape in engine like Unity/Unreal/Godot and shat out at Steam. Colony Ship actually has easily one of the best production qualities in niche genre known as: hardcore cRPGs. There are very few seriously written, seriously looking and seriously challenging cRPGs in the making. Most are cartoony lookin, piss easy bullshit written and made by American WOKE Millenials. You can smell it through the thumbnail, I swear

Colony Ship should focus on its target audience, and there are enough people who wanna play game with graphics from 2023 and game design + story telling from OG Fallouts in 90s. I'd bet such prestigious audience numbers 1.000.000+ gamer gentlemen worldwide for sure today. That's audience that can sustain studio size of Iron Tower. Magic Trick is in reaching them, and we should help create that magic

 

[Technomancer]

Colony Ship should focus on its target audience, and there are enough people who wanna play game with graphics from 2023 and game design + story telling from OG Fallouts in 90s.

Hence the full broadcasting name of the game - A Post-Earth Role Playing Game. A mouthful, but it's supposed to be a beacon for particular eyes.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I think the game will do well...I think the type who buy this game may also be more the type who don't buy early access like me...I am just waiting for it to release. If I had to guess I would say it won't explode out of the gate so much as have long legs via word of mouth, so keeping the high ratings and scores is likely a good strategy in this regard..I don't actually know for sure of course if any of the above is correct, its just a general 'feeling' based on the type of game, the audience etc..

 

[Abu Antar]

Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game
Announcement
Full Demo Available
Now you can try the demo and see for yourself if the design is to your liking.

The demo gives you the entire first chapter and three party members (you'd have to explore the starting town to recruit them; your party size is tied to your main character's Charisma).

Should you choose to buy the game and continue your adventure, you'll be able to keep playing without starting a new game as the demo saves are compatible with the full game.

Some tips for new adventurers:

- Buy and use gadgets like the Distortion Field or the Energy Shield for every fight. You can find them at Cole's Gadgets store in the Pit and activate before a fight.

- Don't neglect the combat feats. If you're playing a fighter, pick the feat related to your primary weapon: Pistolero, Rifleman, etc. To understand how your to-hit chance is calculated, press ALT while hovering over a target to see the full breakdown.

- Use stimulants and grenades: smoke grenades will make you harder to hit (very useful for melee fighters), poison grenades will weaken your enemies, especially those without gas masks, flashbangs will disorient them, etc.

- Heavier armor isn't necessarily better, especially if your character has low Armor skill and no Armor handling feat.

- Don't use the same attack over and over. Aimed: Legs attack can reduce your enemies' Evasion, making them easier to hit, while Aimed: Weak Point will reduce the enemies' Damage Resistance (DR).

- The textbox in the right corner provides a lot of info: your damage, enemies' DR, and even your rolls. It also shows which attacks the enemies are using. The enemies use the same system (stats, skills, feats, inventory) and play by the same rule. Paying attention to what they do will help you figure out the rules faster.

If you have any questions about the mechanics, we'll be happy to answer.

Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game
Announcement
Update notes for May 1, 2023
IMPROVEMENTS

- Heavily improved the performance of the save/load screen, especially when lots of saves are present.
- Added the option to delete all saves related to a character.
- Disabled the possibility of tagging speech skills on party members.

CHANGES

- Tweaked the price of broken and damaged implants.
- Tweaked Zeta's heart and armor implant.

FIXES

- Fixed the save/load screen resetting when a save was deleted.
- Fixed missing or wrong LP gains.
- Fixed 5th Daughter lack of gadget.
- Fixed wrong computers reward in electronics check in Red Zone.
- Fixed wrong reference with Nico's dialogue and Nazar.
- Tweaked code on Shotgunner so it increases only shotgun accuracy.
- Fixed issue with party members remaining invisible if you loaded a savegame in which they were inside the building and the PC outside.

 

[Goral]

Biggest Polish gaming site has written about Colony Ship: https://www.gry-online.pl/newsroom/...allout-2-i-arcanum-sprawdz-demo-na-st/z024e3b
Don't know where they've seen Arcanum vibe but at least they're talking well about your game.

 

[Priest]

Does this game, like Age of Decadence, prevent the player from accessing huge chunks of content simply because you didn't put the points into correct stats during character creation? I mean, the developers literally recommend following a guide for an optimal first time experience in AoD. That's ridiculous if you ask me

 

[Vault Dweller]

First, we literally didn't. For the optimal first time experience we recommended choosing combat or diplomacy and sticking with it, instead of trying to play a jack of all trades. Second, your faction and choices not stats govern the access to content.

 

[Priest]

Second, your faction and choices not stats govern the access to content

I remember there being a well which required a certain amount of constitution to interact with it without dying. I put a lot of points into it but apparently never reached the threshold and deprived myself of boosting something else in order to access some other stuff on top of that. Was there anyway to access the well part without the necessary stats?

Still liked the world and lore though, might be enough of a reason to check out Colony Ship

 

[Elhoim]

Second, your faction and choices not stats govern the access to content

I remember there being a well which required a certain amount of constitution to interact with it without dying. I put a lot of points into it but apparently never reached the threshold and deprived myself of boosting something else in order to access some other stuff on top of that. Was there anyway to access the well part without the necessary stats?

Still liked the world and lore though, might be enough of a reason to check out Colony Ship

Specially since the demo is a big chunck of the game, so you can get a proper feeling of how the game is. In general, checks are more about skills than stats, plus there's a party to fall back to. It doesn't mean there won't be any side content that your character might not access, but it would be more related to tags and skills.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Second, your faction and choices not stats govern the access to content

I remember there being a well which required a certain amount of constitution to interact with it without dying. I put a lot of points into it but apparently never reached the threshold and deprived myself of boosting something else in order to access some other stuff on top of that. Was there anyway to access the well part without the necessary stats?

It can hardly be called a "huge chunk of content" as it's neither a location or a quest. It's a minor event and yes, it favors physically fit individuals to balance events that favor pencil-neck talkers.