Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game News

It’s been six months since Colony Ship was released and three years since we launched on Early Access. It wasn’t an easy journey and we’re grateful for the overwhelming support and encouragement we’ve received at every step of the way.

We’ll continue improving the game throughout 2024 and making your experience aboard Starfarer more enjoyable and memorable. This update (the seventh since release) adds:

• Improved Heart location (new quests and events)
  
• Improved ‘rooftop’ and ‘train station’ levels
  
• New and expanded dialogues
  
• New weapons and portraits
  
• More interactive events
  
• New world map
  
• Minor fixes and improvements

- Fixed not being able to ask the mutant trader about the rifle after the first dialogue.
- Fixed civilians walking in place when loading a save on the same map in the middle of combat.
- Fixed Hargrave having two energy SMGs.
- Fixed some lockpick checks in hydroponics giving less LP than intended.
- Fixed minor issues with dialogues.

Colony Ship wouldn’t be here without all of you who supported us in Early Access. It’s a huge help to indie devs, and a unique opportunity to shape a game and see it evolve.

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is a squad tactics heist RPG by the Trese Brothers that started Early Access in October and I think is worth checking out. They’ve been getting some fantastic reviews comparing it to games like XCOM, Shadowrun, and Invisible Inc. It’s less of a cRPG than Colony Ship, but much more of one than most XCOM-likes, with squad member backstories and character-driven storylines playing a big role in the missions you can take on.



Like Colony Ship, it has in-depth combat and character build systems. It’s not possible to do total pacifist playthroughs but they do have extensive stealth and hacking options; you can go full ninja, guns blazing, or anywhere in between. Enemy units are independent, so you can pull off a lot of great ambush and diversion tactics; you just have to stay ahead of each levels’ ruthless security AI trying to detect intruders and use guards and security devices against you.



They’re aiming for some major replayability, and the Trese Brothers have a great reputation as developers. I’d say they’re off to a good start in EA with already over 40 updates since launch. If you’re looking for another game to help turn into a lasting gem in your collection, check it out.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

The first update of 2024 is focused on the party members (we expanded the existing conversations where appropriate and added new ones). We'll continue adding more conversations throughout this year, but we don't want to overdo, so we'll go step by step and evaluate your feedback after each update.

Other notable changes:

- improved visuals in several areas
- improved journal entries
- minor balance changes (Controlled and Focused Bursts, Annihilator, energy SMG magazine size)
- new implant upgrade (Stress Response: when HP drop to 13 or less, Action Points +4, Evasion +12)
- bug and typo fixes
- engine optimization

if you're an existing player we'd like to thank you for your support and assure that we'll keep improving the game throughout 2024 and pay close attention to your feedback. If you're just discovering the game and wondering if it's for you, try the demo first or watch one of the impression videos:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The first major update is now live. It adds many ‘quality of life’ improvements requested by the players:

• Customizable difficulty (for players who thought that playing on Underdog was too hard and playing on Hero mode was too easy)
  
• Animation speed slider (for players who wanted to speed up combat and stealth; you can set up it for all characters or enemies only)
  
• Follow and focus camera options
  
• Walking/running toggle
  
• Different inventory grid options
  
• Chapter ending slides
  
• Improved font readability (work in progress)
  
• Improved the help screen
  
• When leaving the Pit and the Habitat, listed quests that will be auto-resolved, giving you a chance to go back and finish them
  
• When fixing Romeo, listed the missing parts
  
• Numerous minor improvements, balance changes, and fixes.

Thank you again for your support. Happy New Year to you and your families.