|
Has anyone played far enough to see if there’s a way to make completely sustaining colonies? It seems like eventually you’re going to run out of resources that you can even export to buy more. I get that that period is probably extreme late game, but I always take issue with builder games that don’t let me go full sustaining.
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2018 16:12
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 09:10 |
|
|
Cool, I’m glad there are deep veins and other methods for sustaining. Allegedly there are techs to reduce the penalties for people working outside of their specialty and by “midgame” according to a post on the subreddit, and a few folks seemed to fall into “trying to min-max that is an exercise in frustration for marginal benefit” which I’m going to choose to believe so I can stop fiddling with every single job site.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2018 18:14
|
|
|
Phi230 posted:I have literally hundreds of food lying around and dozens idle drones but my colonists are starving Do they have a place to eat it that’s staffed? I made this mistake my first time by not having a diner in their dome.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2018 18:22
|
|
|
DreamShipWrecked posted:If anyone has played Planetbase this is a more casual version of that, and cool. Not to derail too much but how is planetbase? I’ve had it on my steam wishlist for what feels like years but I keep getting this uneasy feeling that it sucks really bad from some of the reviews.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2018 21:24
|
|
|
As a note to anyone on the fence: Do not read the steam reviews, but also that doesn’t mean the game is perfect. I was on there a second ago desperately looking for a tracklist for Quantum Sonics (it’s not there) - but most of the negative reviews have to do with things that are blatantly untrue or just a result of poor explanation on the game’s part. Don’t get me wrong, it does a poo poo job of explaining a lot of things, but some reviews were claiming that you had to micromanage every drone to recharge it, which, no. It doesn’t do a great job of explaining things and there are some VERY opaque things that remind me very heavily of Tropico. For example: How much food do my people eat per day? Where are my graphs of resource levels over time? If you loved (the later) Tropico’s, this has a similar feel in that regard. The devs seem to have a weird tendency to give you just enough information and control to fall into a micro management hell. Don’t do that, just expand. I think a lot of people (myself included) fastidiously picked their first 12 colonists and expected them to dutifully man their best station and only that. What happens is usually not that, and fixing it is an exercise in frustration. You can spend an hour tweaking only them, or you can bring down another 12 colonists. Those 24, or however many will self sort into mostly the correct roles, enough that you don’t need to pinch the extra efficiency out. It doesn’t look like it wants to be Factorio or Anno where you have to perfectly balance every production chain at all times. Don’t buy it if you want that level of micromanagement. It is not an extremely tight logistics simulator. It is also not Rimworld in that you will have a guy who cooks and he’s the only one who can cook. Trying to make that happen will be a bad time. On the other hand, if you find building a colony on Mars kicking rad and you like that looming “I am getting the sense this might be a death spiral” only to suddenly get a meteor storm event and somehow limp out the other side, then yeah, pick this up. It’s a little abstracted and yeah, employment and supplies are very floaty, but it’s fun and even into mid-late game I feel the constant tension of a death spiral that I haven’t gotten since Banished. If you’re still 50/50 I mean, it will probably feel a lot better with a few QOL changes and maybe a big patch or two to really shine. It’s by no means bad now, though, if you know what you’re getting into. All that aside, does anyone know the song and artist on quantum Sonics radio that has the chorus something like “Till the moon/ and the stars/ are running free”? My google-fu is desperately failing me and it’s stuck in my head.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2018 08:09
|
|
|
So I think I found a bug that I’m gonna use to farm as many cheevos as I can get this game and then try a new sponsor. (I’m not usually one for achievements, but hey, it’s something to do.) I want infinite free resources/mystery spoilers: Started a game as SpaceY which has reduced import costs for advanced materials (polymers, electronics, machine parts). I randomly got ‘The Last War’ mystery which apparently is one of the harder ones and BOY it can be difficult to beat if you get boned on timing. One of the rewards is reduced import costs. Together, those two bonuses have made advanced materials completely free of charge to import and once you have the space elevator it’s basically instant. The Last War is tough. I am working hard not to spoil myself on any mysteries, so I didn’t look up any details. First they start to take away your ability to import colonists or any goods. Yikes. There are a few events where you can either take a bonus for yourself or help slow the war. Eventually you also lose the ability to send rockets at all. They hit you with a pretty nasty meteor shower as an “attack” on mars a couple of times and this threatened to put me into a hellish death spiral as I was already low on electronics, and now getting lower as I had to repair a ton of things to get my grid and life support back up and running. I lost somewhere around 40 colonists from one dome that I couldn’t afford to get a tunnel repaired in time to save them. This also put a ton of poo poo beyond that tunnel is disrepair, which sucked up even more electronics in maintenance and rebuilding. Sure enough my electronics factories were in that dead dome. Once I stabilized, Earth proceeded to send me bunches of refugees which was alright at the time but only because of my deaths, then they demand rare metals as a way to stop the war, and THEN send five rockets demanding all sorts of poo poo you produce. AND THEN send you a 100 person refugee rocket. It’s sure something.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2018 04:20
|
|
|
After getting to end game once, now, my only “this is horrible please fix” is a “stop loving” button. I can build a wonder that alters people’s brains or build androids but I can’t give my people some birth control? Hell, I don’t mind if it’s even just a suppression effect and still slips some kids by to abstract the “birth control doesn’t always work” bit, but drat. By late game I couldn’t make a dome uncomfortable enough to not grow kids. I guess I’ll just have to start making sex separate domes and truly realize Gay Space Communism.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2018 17:36
|
|
|
In the tradition of any game ever, apparently Reddit and the main forums are absolutely up in arms over dumb poo poo and getting the pitchforks over connecting domes. I hope they don’t unless they rework balance quite a bit. I’m generally more in the “bonsai garden” city builder camp, but this game clearly doesn’t want that and it shouldn’t try to be that. It needs to be good on its own merits.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2018 20:08
|
|
|
I wouldn’t mind it but I just hope they balance it well if they make that change. I like making parks and stuff in my domes, and I’d like more of that, but as the game stands everything is much more utilitarian and aesthetics and the “bonsai” parts are insanely bare bones at best. Letting us connect stuff to build “districts” would be cool and let you have the room to build connected large parks and stuff. If anyone is arguing for connected domes for mechanics purposes though, they’re dead wrong and just not using the tools provided. Which, in fairness they are somewhat difficult to understand.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2018 20:24
|
|
|
I even have the bonus radio station from the deluxe edition or whatever and can safely say that they all 100% own. If I had to rate, Mars radio is the weakest, fave is either Quantum Sonics or Red Frontier. There’s also a workshop mod for a lofi hip hop/vaporwave/whatever station that makes decent ambient music, if you’re into that.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2018 21:55
|
|
|
Arkangelus posted:I like this game and want to love it, but it sorely needed another pass as far as QoL tweaks before being released. In terms of management it's amazing how many pieces of information and tools are just missing. In a world where Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress exist it would be nice if there was some sign that they'd learned something from them. You can't even queue actions it seems. I mean I agree in a sense, but sort of the problem is that Surviving Mars is a multiplatform release for a more wide population and what the heavy grognard Rimworld/DF/etc player sees as QOL is probably the opposite for your average “building a colony on mars sounds cool” player. It’s not that I disagree with you, it’s just that I feel this should be compared to the crazy casualness of the later Tropico games vs the colony/cig management a lot of us have gotten used to with Rimworld/DF. It doesn’t want to try to be that in depth, and I think I’d be setting myself up for disappointment to expect that level of micromanagement and also still expect the game to present any sort of an interesting challenge.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2018 08:36
|
|
|
skeleton warrior posted:Ehhhhh. I’d really like to know how many people/Power I need for that machine parts factory, but the only thing the game tells me right now is that I need a prefab There’s definitely some info missing, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I don’t think we’ll see queues and things like the Rimworld job matrix and stuff like that. Graphs and more clear “you are using this many of thing” charts are necessary.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2018 20:29
|
|
|
Yeah I started with the religious faction last night and hoo buddy do they pop out people. I got their achievement (100 Martianborn by sol 100) and my god, it was supremely easy even after I didn’t get my first colonists until almost Sol20. I didn’t even get apartments until like Sol 30-40. There is already a problem with colonists spitting out kids and their bonuses double down on it. It’s the first game I have a farm in all but 1 of 5 small domes and still almost run out of food constantly. I’m going to finish the mystery and reroll... even though I was going to make this my “long term” game.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2018 16:57
|
|
|
Related to my previous post, pick the Church of the New Ark. First dome popped out a baby within like 4 days. Also one bit I noticed is that, if you can afford it, use the smaller homes and not apartments. The comfort difference in the very early game is a big modifier.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2018 19:05
|
|
|
Namaer posted:I really wish you could have some input on what breakthroughs you get, like the ascendancies in Stellaris. There's a few I haven't gotten that I would like to play with and there are a few that I would love to be able to guarantee myself every game just for QOL's sake. I’d dig a mod that kept them random but let me forbid some. A few I will just plain never use and it always feels detrimental when they pop.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2018 05:08
|
|
|
Haieiemonont or whatever is no stranger to support and DLC but hopefully the Paradox publishing aspect will push them away from “$4 for a building” and more into the “$10-20 for significant additions/new mechanics” of EU4/Cities:Skylines. This can still backfire if their DLCs are wack as sometimes happens with Paradox, but I think it’s a fair system in general for both dev/publisher and consumer. I wholly expect this to be a game I don’t play for like a year, a new DLC will drop, and I’ll binge it for two weeks.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2018 19:23
|
|
|
Yeah tropico has the same drat problem with exhaustible poo poo. I get that both games kind of want you to play the game through several times, but they really should understand that most folks playing this style of game would rather have one (or just a few) long rear end games where they build out their perfect bonsai garden across the map. It would be more interesting if the strength of the deposit affected how much could be pulled, and only a single extractor could be on a deposit, but they’re infinite. That makes it more of a logical, planned expansion to a new water or metal deposit. It’s even stupider in Tropico where there is literally no reason for them to become exhausted.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2018 00:20
|
|
|
That seems pretty fast for quite a lot of changes! I wonder if this is more what the intended launch was, but these bits were cut to make the date? Definitely going to check this out. As dumb as it sounds having the rocker pad makes me extremely happy.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2018 17:14
|
|
|
I didn’t get a ton of time to play, but new features are cool. Definitely helping me pick it up again after feeling like maybe I was done with it, because now I can make more specialized domes and it feels like I can have more creativity to do cool things, like make pretty parks. It’s still not a perfect game but I think it’s a step in the right direction and feels encouraging for the future DLCs and stuff.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2018 17:54
|
|
|
I recently googled this because I was thinking about it in relation to this game. Answers varied from 64 - 10000.  I think the answer with the best explanation was somewhere between 64-120 without some creative loving.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2018 17:15
|
|
|
Is that with the Church? They have a bonus that might assist an Adam and Eve playthrough, but I’m not sure how high it is.
|
|
#
¿
May 2, 2018 05:11
|
|
|
duffmensch posted:I wish it was possible to make branching passages or to connect them to the wall without having to take up a hex for each one. I feel like the new micro dome could kind of be used as a hub, if a bit big. I haven’t played much since tunnels, do the number of domes someone has to travel affect anything, or is it just a linear distance?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2018 21:57
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 09:10 |
|
|
I have no idea how it would work or be different from a dome, but some of the canyon/pit terrain set pieces just beg to have a dome cover the open area and some cool rear end city cut into the open rock around the edges of it. It’s kind of a random idea and purely based on the aesthetic quality, but... Surviving Mars looks like it has a good future ahead of it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2018 18:50
|
|