Основные элементы Titan Outpost и как играть

This guide describes the basic elements of Titan Outpost and how to play the game.

Введение

Titan is a cold and inhospitable place. You start out the game alone and with limited resources in a barely operational outpost.

As the game unfolds, you will learn more about the setting, the world and the characters that inhabit it. Be advised that the game ‘opens up’ after a couple of months of in-game time. The story will hit its stride, more events will occur, ships will arrive in the system and new characters will be introduced. If the first portion of the game makes you think “Is this all there’s to it?” then rest assured that the answer is no.

Don’t be afraid to pass the time once you have a stable life support system going. If you find yourself with no active missions or quests, just build or research something and pass the time.

The game is full of mysteries, unreliable narrators and backstabbers. If something doesn’t make sense right away, maybe it will later. Несмотря на это, if your character doesn’t have high awareness, odds are the revelations your character gets are incomplete or even false. Most players will not uncover all the secrets in a single play-through.

The game is non-linear in essence. The storyline branches out depending on your actions and there are different solutions to problems, depending on your character build and choice. This leads us to the first section, building your character.

Характер

Titan Outpost is a blend of different genres, but it’s an RPG at heart. This means that your character build will have a major impact on how your game plays out.

The in-game tooltips, dialog boxes and F1 help screens will tell you about all the options during character creation when you start a new game.

You can’t create a build that won’t be able to finish a game, but if you make choices that run counter to your character’s skill set, you will find that it can get tough.

The PICA character system can be broken down as follows:

Атрибуты

• Physicality – This determines your overall physical strength. High physicality allows you to survive a bit longer when things get rough. It is also a frequently used stat check. You can sometimes solve things by applying brute force that would require workarounds or tools for other characters. This is the only attribute that can be directly applied to items.
• Интеллект – Intelligence determines how well you learn and understand things. You get more skill points and have more dialogue options in certain conversations.
• Харизма – Charisma lets you get away with things, helps you convince others and keeps crew morale high.
• Осведомленность – Awareness lets you perceive NPC’s hidden agendas, uncover secrets and speeds up searches. If you have Awareness of 9 или выше, you can see an NPC’s exact relation value.

Навыки

Skills can be leveled up during the game. They determine the character’s ability to perform certain tasks and sometimes serve as a prerequisite for perks.

• Строительство – Construction determines how fast you can build things in the Outpost. Чем оно выше, the faster things get built. To see the exact formula, check the Formulas & Math section. You don’t need to know this to play the game. The same goes for other skill based formulas. Construction is also frequently used in the field if you need to build something. You can apply this skill to a lot of items. It determines how fast you can construct pump elements at methane lakes and it is occasionally checked in dialogue.
• Наука – Science determines how fast you can research things in the Outpost. Чем оно выше, the faster the research goes. Science pops up in the field at times. You can apply it to items and it is occasionally checked in dialogue.
• Логистика – Logistics serves as a small general multiplier to everything and reduces upkeep. It also determines how many waypoints you can assign to a drone. It can sometimes, but rarely, be applied in the field. It cannot be applied to items. It is rarely checked in dialogue.
• Взлом – Hacking allows you to access and alter various systems. You need hacking to surge the power system, to access certain data files, and to build illicit items. You can gain access where other characters cannot. This skill is often checked in the field and in dialogue. You can use this skill on items.
• Переговоры – Negotiation helps you sway NPCs to do something you want, to lower prices or to get out of tricky situations. You can sometimes win negotiations through sheer high charisma, by uncovering leverage or by bribing people, but if you’re planning on playing a ‘talker’, this skill is essential.

If you’re unsure of what stats and skill to pick, for your first playthrough you can’t go wrong by dividing your points equally among all attributes and putting at least one point in both construction and science. Remember though that there are no ‘wrong’ выбор.

Функции

Traits are optional bonus/malus effects that you can pick at character creation. Sometimes they’re also used in dialogue or in other checks during the game. Explanations are provided in-game when you pick them. Here are the effects:

• Hyperthyroidism – You get a penalty of -1 to Physicality, but your resistance to cold treats your Physicality attribute as if it were 10. Cold Resistance determines how fast your body temperature drops when your suit charge is low or your suit is otherwise compromised.
• Sunny Disposition – Вы начинаете с 1 less skill point, but your morale is 50% выше.
• Caffeine Addict – You require less sleep, but you always suffer from fatigue level 1 unless you’re caffeinated. You start with more coffee in the Outpost than other characters and have earlier access to beans.
• On The Spectrum – Your negotiation is capped at 0 but you gain a stat point. Getting an extra attribute is a great bonus, but capping a skill at 0 is a heavy penalty.
• Гиперактивный – Your work modifier is lowered by 10%, but your fatigue level threshold is 20% выше. This does not mean you need less hours of sleep like with Caffeine Addict, it means that you function at peak capacity longer even if you need sleep.
• Rich Kid – You start with ten times the starting amount of money, but your contractor relations start off lower.

льготы

Every two levels, you get a perk. You don’t need to know about these at character creation, unless you want to plan out your build in advance.

Доктор

Требования: По меньшей мере 1 point in science

Эффекты: You can use the doctor perk in a few tricky situations. You get to save someone you can then recruit

Старатель

Требования: По меньшей мере 2 points in Exploration

Эффекты: У вас есть 1% chance of gaining useful materials for each kilometer traveled on the world map.

NiHao

Требования: По меньшей мере 1 point in negotiation, по меньшей мере 1 point in logistics or at least 8 points in intelligence

Эффекты: You can communicate with people at the Chinese base (some speak English, но не все) and you can more easily operate Chinese equipment.

Applied Physics

Требования: At least one point in science

Эффекты: Для каждого 3 science points, ты получишь 1 construction point. Includes current points.

стоик

Требования: Никто

Morale decrease is lowered by 80%.

Морда кирпичом

Требования: Никто

Эффекты: You don’t suffer negotiation penalties during a lie. You automatically pass lie checks in dialogue.

Денежные разговоры

Требования: По меньшей мере 2 points in negotiation

Эффекты: You can ignore an NPCs integrity value when going for a bribe during a negotiation.

Torque Master

Требования: По крайней мере уровень 6

Эффекты: Rover speed increased by 10% and power consumption reduced by 10%.

Adaptation

Требования: По крайней мере уровень 6

Эффекты: Your physicality is treated as +1 in cold-related modifiers and the conductance value of where you’re walking is lowered.

The Outpost

The Outpost is your base of operations.

В начале игры, it is barely operational.

Talk to IPMS (press default hotkey ‘P’ or select the IPMS face in the toolbar) and ask about improving the Outpost. The AI will give you a few suggestions. После этого, the ‘Home Improvement’ mission shows up in your quest log.

Following this quest is the best way to become self-sustaining early.

You can access the interfaces for the Outpost functions by walking up to them. Unlike interface elements accessible from the toolbar, such as the character sheet or the inventory, these are only available if you’re at the Outpost, or in the case of the Comms system, the Outpost and the Rover.

For an explanation of the systems, refer to the in-game manual by pressing F1 and selecting the corresponding system from the dropdown menu in the top-left.

Inventory and Items

The inventory UI has 5 вкладки.

Инвентарь

These are the items you are carrying. Some items can be использовал. Using them will open the use item panel.

You can try applying relevant skills or attributes to the item and see what happens. Not every skill will do something useful to every usable items. Sometimes your skill might not be high enough.

Some items can be оборудованный. After equipping them, they will show up in the equipment tab.

Some items can be processed. This can only be done while you’re at the Outpost. Processing an item will break it apart into its constituent materials for use in the construction system, or in the case of, например, плутоний, add it to the generator’s RTG feed.

If you’re at the Outpost, ты можешь передача items to the Outpost inventory. This is useful for charging batteries, or if you want to tidy up the personal inventory. There are no weight or volume restrictions to either.

Оборудование

This tab shows the status of your suit, the upgrades you’ve made and the modifiers that affect it. It also shows you which items you have equipped. You can click on an item to unequip it.

Застава

This tab shows you the Outpost’s inventory on the left. You can transfer things back to your personal inventory from here. If the item is chargeable, you can add it to the charging station. Keep in mind that you need to research a method of recharging the specialized battery technology before you can charge batteries.

In the middle section, you can see what’s in stock at the Outpost, as well as track the progress of certain projects that are started in or around the base throughout the game. Keep in mind that oxygen should not be 100% и это 20% is the nominal value for breathability.

To the right you can see the current status of the methane operation. How much is in stock, how much the main tank can hold and what drones and tanks are available. You can’t control them from here though, you can only control drones from the logistical map.

Ровер

This tabs shows you the Rover status, the upgrades you’ve made and how they affect its performance. To the left you can see its top speed and how much you have traveled.

Данные

This tab will show data files you gather throughout the game. Some are necessary to solve quests, others provide important backstory and a few can be used as leverage to use in negotiations.

Gathering Methane

Initially* your purpose on Titan is to gather methane and send it back to earth. After reconnecting the satellite dish you’ll get a mission to begin setting up this operation.

You need to build a pump, send it to a lake, assign a drone to this lake and then travel towards it to hook it all up.

*: You can actually ignore the methane gathering part of the game and finish another way. It is not required for every ending and you are free to pursue other goals.

Building a pump and placing it

Use the construction system to build a hydrokinetic pump. В начале игры, one is already being built, so all you have to do is power up the construction system and wait until it’s done.

When a pump is in stock, you can place it by clicking on a lake location -marked by a methane molecule hovering above it- and clicking the deploy pump button when the information box shows up.

Click a drone in the top right and ‘set waypoints’ to create a route for it. Add two waypoints. Start with the destination location first and end with the Outpost. Click ‘set waypoints’ to confirm the route. If your logistics skill is high enough, you can set more destinations. It is always more efficient to have one drone/tank combination per lake, but especially drones are expensive.

Hooking up a pump

Как только вы будете готовы, you can head out to a lake and hook up the pump to the tank system. Make sure you bring some universal parts with you. Вы начинаете с 10 parts in the Outpost inventory.

Once you arrive at the lake, find the pump and tank combination and walk towards the pump until you see the construction skill button pop up on the left. You’ll enter the pump interface.

The goal is to connect the pump in the lower left corner to the tank in the upper right corner by way of the control box in the middle. Placing a piece of the hose takes time, depending on your construction skill and whether or not you’re carrying modifier items like the tool kit or the press gun. If you take more time than your suit’s battery can keep you warm, you need walk back to the Rover and recharge.

Drones Explained

Drones look for an empty tank at the Outpost and carry it to their destinations. Однажды там, they’ll swap out their current load for the largest tank currently at the destination, unless you flagged ‘wait for full tank’, in which case it will wait until it can bring back a full tank.

A drone in flight will degrade. When it’s ‘maintenance’ value nears 0%, it will likely crash. You can prevent this by passing time while tasking yourself to maintenance in the timelapse panel, or by assigning a companion NPC to maintenance later in the game.

When a drone crashes, you can see its location on the world map. Travel there to inspect it. If your construction skill is high enough, you might be able to repair it. Otherwise you can collect scrap metal from it. If the drone was carrying a tank, that tank is lost.

If you have more than five crashed drones, the first one that crashed will become lost forever. This will roll over indefinitely.

Отгрузки

Every month, an IASA freighter will arrive to collect the methane you’ve gathered. The required amount increases each month. These demands will become increasingly difficult to meet. Failing to meet the demand will decrease your monthly pay and ultimately cause you to lose standing with IASA.

Depending on how you wish to play the game, thwarting your employers may be exactly you want. You won’t lose the game if you fail to meet the demand, you’ll just be walking a different path.

Walking the Surface

Прогулка

If you’re walking on the surface of Titan, the batteries in your suit can only keep you warm for a limited time. If the battery runs out and your body temperature drops, you’ll eventually die.

Time is not your only enemy. With every stop, your feet lose heat through conductance. Some surfaces have a higher conductance value, meaning you’ll lose heat faster and drain the battery accordingly. If you notice a surface with high conductance value, try walking around it or prepare yourself by building some spare batteries.

You’ll sometimes have situational buttons or compass buttons to get you back to the Rover or get directions during a survey missions.

Look at the ‘Outside’ entry in the F1 help screen for more information on those.

Компаньоны & НПС

Saturn is far away from earth and the system is sparsely populated. The cast of Titan Outpost is relatively small, but you can recruit quite a few NPCs to your cause.

When you add a companion NPC to your crew, you can assign tasks to them, based on their skills. They also have a unique bonus modifier.

The recruitable NPCs in the game are:

Valentina Grives

Joins you after the fourth shipment, if you allow her to live. Can be found in a cave near the Outpost.

Потребляет 1 Food per week

Навыки:
Val is unique in that her skillset depends on yours. She’s supposed to be your partner when you arrive, so you were selected for your complementary skillset. She will have skills you didn’t pick.

Задачи:
Depens on her skillset. A unique task called ‘Fungal Gardening’ appears after the ‘Green Green Grass of Home’ mission reaches a certain stage. It will increase the speed at which the lichen growth expands.

Bonus Modifier:
*2 Fungal growth. Further increased by tasking her to Fungal Gardening.
+10 Faction relation bonus if she spawns with >0 negotiation.

Deepak Giliam

Recruitable from TALT.

Потребляет 1.5 Food per week

Навыки:
Наука : 1
Разведка: 2

Задачи:
Исследовать
Разведка

Bonus Modifier:
+5 materials per week (10 if tasked to Exploration)

Jade Kale

Recruitable from TALT.

Потребляет 1 Food per week

Навыки:
Строительство : 1
Логистика : 2

Задачи:
Строительство
Management/Maintenance (maintain drones)

Bonus Modifier:
+1 salary bonus (Increases the amount of WCU you get at the end of each month)

Daxia

Joins you if you accept the ‘For the Republic’ mission from the Chinese commander Ling.

Потребляет 1 Food per week

Навыки:
Наука : 1
Строительство : 4

Задачи:
Исследовать
Строительство

Bonus Modifier:
x2 Construction Modifier (Doubles construction speed)

Louam

Joins if you if you help doctor Adanech save his life.

Потребляет 2 Food per week

Навыки:
Наука : 1
Строительство : 2
Разведка : 2

Задачи:
Исследовать
Строительство
Разведка

Bonus Modifier:
+5 minerals per week (10 if tasked to exploration)

Situ Yat-sen

Joins you if you kill everyone at Tuxing-Liu.

Потребляет 1 Food per week

Навыки:
Переговоры : 2
Логистика : 2

Задачи:
Отношения
Management/Maintenance

Bonus Modifier:
+2 Salary Bonus (Increases the amount of WCU you get at the end of each month)

When they join your crew, NPCs will wander around the Outpost. You can talk to them and see how they’re doing or if there’s a way you can boost their morale. In some cases you can get important information or report on a quest by talking to them.

All NPCs have schedules, depending on the time of day and their task. Sometimes they’re in the basement. If they are it will say so in the roster screen (default hotkey R). If an NPC is tasked to exploration, they will not be inside at the outpost.

All NPCs produce 1 unit of ammonia per week.

Negotiations

Negotiation in Titan Outpost isn’t like in most RPGs where you select a dialogue line, it’s checked against a stat or skill and that’s it. It’s modelled more on how you decide what to say in a P&P game.

Обычно, you have something you want out of a conversation, a goal. You also have a few things to say to get there, but what and how you say them depends on the other person’s actions and cues. So during negotiations Titan Outpost ditches the traditional tree structure in favor of a parallel interrupt system for negotiations.

You can interject with leverage, you can change the goal of your conversation, you can select pushy responses or backpedal and you can influence the dialogue in other ways. You can finally cover the flanks in a battle of words instead of always taking it head on with a couple of options. There is a lot more player agency involved.

If you want to practice negotiation, you can talk to IPMS by clicking the face in the toolbar -default hotkey p- and selecting the dialogue line ‘I want to practice my negotiation skills.’

In the top left, you can select a goal. Goals with higher difficulty will require more sway and have different risk/reward factors.

To the right you can see the relevant stats. With higher awareness, you can see more detail in these stats.

In the middle are general response lines. Some are gated by skills or intelligence, but most players will be able to use most general response lines.

To the left you can choose to charm a character with a friendly line -this is a charisma and relation check-, bribe a character -this is less effective the higher the integrity value of the NPC is and less effective if the NPC is already rich-, or use awareness to try and gain some insight you can use as leverage.

If you have leverage, it will appear in the lower left corner. Leverage can be gained by using insight, or by uncovering something about the NPC, whether it be through hacking. eliciting dirt from others or prior contact with this NPC.

Formulas & Математика

Construction Formula:

The formula is as follows:

(1/((8640*Сложность)/constructionmodifier * (construction skill +1) * workmodifier)) percentage per second.

The difficulty is the difficulty of the current build. The constructionmodifier is the current status of the construction station and whether or not it has been surged. This modifier also carries the bonuses from NPCs that are tasked to construction. The construction skill is self-explanatory and the workmodifier is applied if the character is currently tasked to the construction station.