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Fellow Goons – Ever wanted to manage your own Cold War Frontier State? Or experience the joy of micromanagement for the glory of Communism? Do you think that Snap to Grid is a decadent Imperialist plot? If so, this may just be the game for you. Carve across the countryside with Electricity Pylons  Oil Pipelines and Plants  Mines and Transfer Chutes  And an assortment of other Polluting Heavy Industry  Workers & Resources : Soviet Republic is an Early Access game available on Steam for around $20 that is a cross between a city builder and transport tycoon game with an Eastern Bloc slant. https://store.steampowered.com/app/784150/Workers__Resources_Soviet_Republic/ It is currently in EARLY ACCESS with all that entails. I have 50 hours in the game so far and haven’t experienced any game breaking bugs but have seen some weirdness, 1 CTD and the UI can be desperately unintuitive. Patches are getting pushed out at the rate of 2 or 3 a week at the moment so support seems decent. The game is developed by 3division who are based in Kosice, Slovakia. That means they have plenty of subject matter close at hand to model large unlovely pre-fabricated concrete buildings, which feature a-plenty here.  You can even build your own one of those! Key Game features include: Old Eastern Bloc trucks!  Old Eastern Bloc buses!!  Old Eastern Bloc trains!!!  Statues of Lenin!!!!  Big Red Stars!!!!1  What more could you ask for? “OK OK, OP. I’m one of the six people here who have an unexplainable liking for that aesthetic, but what about the game?”  Well, as pretty much given away by the game title, like all of these types of game it is basically about managing resources. The difference here is that this is a Planned Economy, and you are the one with the Plan! There’s a fair amount of options that can make the game super easy (unlimited funds sandbox mode) to very difficult. So, starting from a totally (or almost totally) blank slate, I’m sure that you’d agree any self-respecting burgeoning Communist Republic needs a Steelworks because Heavy Industry is AWESOME. You can easily build a Steelworks by handing over some currency and plonking it down on a flat part of the (very large) map. Congrats, Titoslavija now has a Steelworks.  In order to get it to work however you need quite a few things.First, a road or rail connection maybe both, in order get things in and out. To make Steel, we need Iron and Coal. So, we’re going to need some Iron Mines and some Coal Mines. These mines will also need connections to the road network too – you’ll be very lucky getting them in to any rail network as you’ll usually find the best deposits in mountain ranges. We’ll also need both Iron and Coal processing plants to turn the respective ores into Iron (and, yes you guessed it) Coal, so we need a way to get the ore to the processing plants. Once we’ve got Iron and Coal we need a way to get it to the Steelworks, oh and don’t forget all of these operations need people, who need houses, food, education, clothes, childcare, booze, entertainment, healthcare etc. Of course, you can give them none of these things and direct them to work where needed anyway (within certain restrictions), when they die or run away to the West you can just hand over some Roubles to get some immigrants from the Soviet Bloc or some Dollars to get some third world immigrants and keep feeding the machine with human misery over and over again.  Of course, you also have to find a way to get the workers to their place of work, so you are going to need to build some bus stations as private vehicles are a symbol of decadence. Buses of course need fuel so you need to build a Gas Station plus a Depot to marshal your vehicles. All of this needs electricity so you better build a power station, which in turn requires more coal, or alternatively build a connection with a neighbour and buy power from them via a load of enormous pylons. This is just one example of a number of logistics chains that will need to be completed before you are self sufficient, comrade. Now you’ve spent all of your starting capital so you need to sell the Steel! Do you build a link to the Russians and sell it for Roubles or get Dollars by linking to the West? Oh look something has caught fire, did you build a Fire Station and buy some fire trucks? Here’s an entertaining ongoing YouTube Lets Play that gives you a good view of the mechanics, some of the current jankiness and in many ways (so very many) shows you how NOT to build your paradise workers republic. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1MxjGBm4ylKRuniyHCGvQtmE-40f6Cxt biglads fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Mar 29, 2019 |
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Mar 29, 2019 02:57
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Update – January 2021 Well the game has a massive amount of new content since the OP was done back in 2019. The devs most recent addition is Airports, Aircraft and Tourism. You can now earn your country some dollars by having rich westerners come and gawp at the proletariat digging coal! The roadmap for future development is here (thanks Government Handjob). https://trello.com/b/0haBaHmz/soviet-republic-roadmap Steam Workshop has a stack of mods available. Some are really ‘must-haves’, e.g. the improved conveyer towers. There’s so many to choose from and some look bad or out of scale, others are horribly overpowered. Recommended mod collections Rob074 has some great buildings https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2076749445 Fellow goon Anime Store Adventure has also put this collection together that includes the aforementioned improved conveyor towers plus other QoL improvements and a lot more. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2329453474 There is also a YouTube playlist of Mod Reviews which is worth a look. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1pRVc0Lq8IrSvIYLWSYv1KqUJEvw635F And while we’re talking about YouTube, here’s an assortment of Let’s Play playlists. PEOPLE PLAYING THIS PROBABLY BETTER THAN YOU AND MOST CERTAINLY BETTER THAN ME (Orbital Potato) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVfEIe0ZbcpcdAfdDxDeiCJ8N5PicQ35V (Party Elite) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwVftHdWAdHNiiFhD59ZBhFvwjh-_vRdZ (ExactChaos) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL841c9Cy1nKBHA2LEvIu53yJ4RVn3v_LC (Colonel Failure) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1MxjGBm4ylJRHp6Do4HfuWOHFZRwgeKS Best of all, Anime Store Adventure has started their own LP, bringing the wonders of planned economics to the Let’s Play forum https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3950400 MOST IMPORTANT NEVER FORGET to decorate your buildings with signs exhorting the masses  biglads fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Feb 27, 2021 |
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Mar 29, 2019 02:57
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This game is really difficult.
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Apr 4, 2019 02:36
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Tatrakrad posted:This game is really difficult. It took me a few goes to make something sustainable. My tip is to find out where the oil is, build the wells, pipes, tanks etc and a refinery then slap a town nearby and bus the workers to the refinery. Once you are producing Fuel & Bitumen you can export these for lots of Rubles or Dollars. It didn't take me long after that to plonk a rail connection in and increase the income.
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Apr 4, 2019 17:12
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Do you start on blank maps or pre populated? Much like transit fever, I haven't got a great estimation of what a reasonable commute time is - at least for the workers. Using gravel roads doesn't help. I tried doing manual construction like a masochist, but running gravel concrete and asphalt supply chains continuously is a lot of work and I'm dumb and gay.
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Apr 4, 2019 20:19
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Tatrakrad posted:Do you start on blank maps or pre populated? I've used the blank maps so far. I recommend running Asphalt roads as default and the ones with lights and sidewalks near population centres. I've got to the point where I can build most stuff for myself but it takes an absolute age and I can't think of a way to change that without dotting a load of warehouses and storage areas around for building materials. With the workers, I direct each building to send the workers to the nearest bus stop and then bus them out from there wherever needed (mines, refinery, etc). Make sure you allocate a bus to your construction base. biglads fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Apr 4, 2019 |
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Apr 4, 2019 21:15
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i stumbled upon this guys lets play when i was researching the game before release, might be of interest to others interested in the game as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skO2811VXRQ
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Apr 4, 2019 21:36
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I just realized what's bothering me about the aesthetic, everything except the roads looks like it's already been around 50 years and weathered a societal collapse the day you put it up. The concrete comes straight out of the factory with a few decades of chips, grime, and fading baked into it, and the steel all comes pre-rusted. Everything looks like it does today, not how it should've looked in 1960. Devs pls fix, literally unplayable
Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 12:48 on Apr 9, 2019 |
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Apr 9, 2019 12:44
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will workers take multiple public transportation options to get to work? Like lets say I build a large residential area outside of my main city and have them all take a train to the center of my main city, will they get off that train and go to a bus station to go to a different work site?
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Apr 9, 2019 19:44
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Re: the aesthetics of buildings it would be cool if they started out in mint condition and had to be maintained or else get chipped and rusty. But I'd be more interested in getting some dank revolutionary murals for my big chungus brutalist buildings. Uncle Josef carrying a child on his strong shoulders or that lineup of Engels, Marx and Lenin with the Soviet flag in the background would look pretty sweet on the walls of an otherwise boring residential building.
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Apr 10, 2019 07:31
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Do resources like oil, gravel and iron run out after some time or are they endless? Edit: Jesus this is complex.  I really hope this gets either a manual or comprehensive tutorial before release, there is just so much stuff.
Vivick fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Apr 10, 2019 |
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Apr 10, 2019 11:53
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Ok, I have a train station with a single train that takes workers along a line to two other train stops, a power plant and coal mine/coal processing plant. When the train arrives to pick up workers, it usually has nearly 100 workers waiting to go. Yet usually between only 0-10 of those workers actually board the train, the rest disappear, and then quickly fill the train stop back up with workers despite there being no other train for them to take. What am I missing here? I restarted to focus on efficiency and distributing workers via trains instead of buses primarily and this is really putting a damper in that. I made population demands at the hardest possible settings though, as in my first game they seemed way too easy, so maybe that has something to do with it? Sheng-Ji Yang fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Apr 10, 2019 |
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Apr 10, 2019 18:44
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Vivick posted:Do resources like oil, gravel and iron run out after some time or are they endless? I'm pretty sure they're endless.
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Apr 10, 2019 19:13
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I've never noticed the 'quality' in any mine drop over time, but then again I've never played a map for more than a few years before running into some game ending bug and quitting. The best opener I've found is to locate a coal seam and then build my first city as close to it as possible (without building on the hills, because the game will make you hate your life if you try that). I then use conveyors to bring coal down to a storage area before its transferred to a refinery then to a power plant. The storage areas allow you to bud up a buffer of coal in case any buildings have their workforce evaporate. The powerplant itself is built in the city with as much housing surrounding it as possible so workers can just walk to work. Using buses to bring them in always results in a shortage at some point when people abandon their jobs or vanish while on the bus (if they ever get on). That usually provides enough of a stable base to build the country on. As a bonus you can export the excess coal and electricity for money. If you have iron ore nearby you can also mine and export that. From there I try and find the nearest oilfield and start pumping that so I can export it. Oil is worth a fair bit and it's easy to refine. Refineries soak up a poo poo load of workers but oil wells are entirely automated so you can put them anywhere and pipe/rail the oil over to your city. I haven't played in about two weeks now so some of that may no longer work well. But the patch notes I've seen make no references to changes that could affect worker behaviour or resources.
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Apr 10, 2019 19:32
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Yeah my first move on the second try was find a place with a ton of oil and build the entire settlement to fuel the refinery and exporting fuel/bitumen and importing everything else, though that is getting frustrated by people not boarding their drat trains!!
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Apr 10, 2019 20:14
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Sheng-Ji Yang posted:Ok, I have a train station with a single train that takes workers along a line to two other train stops, a power plant and coal mine/coal processing plant. When the train arrives to pick up workers, it usually has nearly 100 workers waiting to go. Yet usually between only 0-10 of those workers actually board the train, the rest disappear, and then quickly fill the train stop back up with workers despite there being no other train for them to take. What am I missing here? I am only using rail for freight at the moment so I can't directly help with this at the moment I'm afraid. Having said that, the Coal Power Plant only takes a maximum of 20 workers and the Ore Plant 15. Is there a path between the station and the Coal Mine and have you directed the workers where to go to work from the station(s)? I'd try sending the passenger train on the following schedule. Town Passenger Station -> Power Plant/Ore Station -> Town Passenger Station -> Coal Mine Station
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Apr 10, 2019 22:16
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The Steam discussion section on the game has a link to the road map with a bunch of stuff that is in the works or planned for later additions. Included there is stuff like roadside bus stops, vehicle route planning, police and militia, uranium mining and nuclear warheads / depleted uranium ammunition. Until Cobalt Thorium G is added however I guess my plans for the ultimate aggression deterrent will have to wait, and I'll just settle for selling my commie vodka across the NATO border to sap and impurify their precious bodily fluids.
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Apr 11, 2019 23:29
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biglads posted:Here’s an entertaining ongoing YouTube Lets Play that gives you a good view of the mechanics, some of the current jankiness and in many ways (so very many) shows you how NOT to build your paradise workers republic. I can't stop watching this. This chipper Brit and his thorough musings and promises of happiness for people complying with  ideology and building this entire world with threats of banishment to Siberia for non-compliance are just amazing. 
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Apr 12, 2019 16:26
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I was having a lot of trouble with train signaling even after I kind of learned how the semaphores work, but I found a semi-helpful steam guide by a polish nazi which I can't now find. Basically, it's traffic circles. I built a big traffic circle around one of my main towns with rail lines going in and out to the border, to other towns, and to my big industrial zone. In the place where I have the traffic circle, I haven't got a single train stuck.
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Apr 12, 2019 20:50
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Anyone know what the quality value means on resource deposits? I've a coal mine feeding my power plant with a value of 14%, so I'm reasonably sure it's pretty much peat, but I have no idea what that means in game terms.
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Apr 13, 2019 05:40
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I thiiiiiink the quality number is related to the green-ness of the nodes when you place the extraction building and impact the amount produced? But I'm not sure. Oil wells I placed in a more yellowish area seem to have lower quality numbers and produce less than oil wells I place in the middle of a big green patch with no other wells around it, anyway.
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Apr 13, 2019 05:47
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hailthefish posted:I thiiiiiink the quality number is related to the green-ness of the nodes when you place the extraction building and impact the amount produced? But I'm not sure. That's kind of how I understand it working too. Imagine a Oil Well with 100% value. As long as it has power etc., then let's say it has a daily output value of 100t/oil. When your Well is located in a location with a quality value of 50% then the daily output of that Well is 50t/oil. There is an added complication with Coal or Iron mines as you'd also have to take into account the amount of workers in there at any time (good luck with ever getting 500 people in).
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Apr 13, 2019 20:05
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biglads posted:There is an added complication with Coal or Iron mines as you'd also have to take into account the amount of workers in there at any time (good luck with ever getting 500 people in). my man, have you heard of our lord and savior the train station I'm pretty sure the only reason i can run a power plant and steel mill off of basically lignite is because I have a town of nearly 2000 people specifically to throw workers at it, and that's only possible by shipping them in hundreds at a time by train. I pretty much use trams as EMUs and chain them together 2 or 3 at a time. Forums Terrorist fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Apr 13, 2019 |
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Apr 13, 2019 21:30
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I still think a significant portion of my population is taking transit in circles, waiting at platforms and never boarding, and disappearing into the aether
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Apr 15, 2019 19:54
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Forums Terrorist posted:my man, have you heard of our lord and savior the train station Yeah, I made the fundamental error of sticking my mines up mountains. It's hard enough running roads up there, forget about rails. There should be an option to build a funicular.
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Apr 15, 2019 20:15
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You can run footpaths pretty much anywhere, so as long as the total distance to the mine is less than 300m you can get dudes in there by train (or bus, but trains scale better).
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Apr 15, 2019 22:28
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biglads posted:Yeah, I made the fundamental error of sticking my mines up mountains. It's hard enough running roads up there, forget about rails. There should be an option to build a funicular. Where else are you supposed to put them? All the seams are in mountains for coal and iron
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Apr 15, 2019 22:38
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Lol I love the idea of having to hike up a mountain to get to work in my workers' paradise
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Apr 15, 2019 22:40
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Phi230 posted:Where else are you supposed to put them? All the seams are in mountains for coal and iron I've seen some people put the mines on the flattest area near the seams, meaning they are getting lower output but easier transit. Or you could do as Forums Terrorist suggests and run footpaths from the bus/train station (crampons optional). I've been running 2 buses from my nearest town direct to each mine and I'm getting enough output to keep my coal power plants and steelworks running.
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Apr 15, 2019 23:20
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Crazycryodude posted:Lol I love the idea of having to hike up a mountain to get to work in my workers' paradise Lmao at not having either a bus line or if you are a particularly rich Republic, a dedicated tram line going up the mountain so your miners can enjoy luxury train comfort before they get black lung
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Apr 15, 2019 23:24
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Good lord road making is janky as hell. Have they said they're gonna fix it?
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May 3, 2019 04:00
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mila kunis posted:Good lord road making is janky as hell. Have they said they're gonna fix it? I think it's linked to the terrain manipulation being a bit poo poo. It hates connecting roads on anything but the shallowest slope and it's a complete PITA. I think they've Improved the terrain tools in the latest patch (and they are still updating frequently) and I'm hopeful they'll get there.
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May 3, 2019 20:28
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Ok, so how the hell do I set up my tracks and semaphores by the large custom houses so that I can have three trains coming and going on a two-track main system without jamming each other to hell? Poorly drawn sketch:
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May 5, 2019 21:27
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This game fuckin rocks. Can't wait for the release + mod community.
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May 5, 2019 22:05
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Every screenshot looks so good but every description of playing sounds horrifying. Whats the jank factor on placing and road connecting buildings these days?
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May 5, 2019 22:26
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Government Handjob posted:Ok, so how the hell do I set up my tracks and semaphores by the large custom houses so that I can have three trains coming and going on a two-track main system without jamming each other to hell? 
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May 5, 2019 22:41
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Generally you would probably want the main line running past the stop to avoid congestion. Then make a branch to/from the stop on either side.
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May 5, 2019 22:54
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Poil posted:I haven't actually played the game, but would this work? This is sort of what I've been trying to do, but there doesn't seem to be any consistency to if the trains switch tracks to a vacant one if the first one is busy. Maybe I just have to fiddle around more with distances between splits and semaphores vs custom house. OwlFancier posted:Generally you would probably want the main line running past the stop to avoid congestion. Then make a branch to/from the stop on either side. If it was possible I would just loop the tracks around the custom house and have all traffic going in the same direction, but custom houses are exit points on the map and you can't build outside the borders 
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May 5, 2019 23:32
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Government Handjob posted:This is sort of what I've been trying to do, but there doesn't seem to be any consistency to if the trains switch tracks to a vacant one if the first one is busy. Maybe I just have to fiddle around more with distances between splits and semaphores vs custom house.
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May 6, 2019 07:40
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To be fair this is still early access. Linked semaphores were recently added to the game so perhaps I need to do some experiments with them. I'm slowly whittling away my supply of rubles importing clothes, electronics and building supplies, and have exhausted my dollars already setting up the rest of the rail and crude oil infrastructure, so having, so it would be nice to get a steady income from exporting fuel, coal, food and alcohol without having to babysit the trains. I also hosed up my coal ore - factory - power plant - coal storage chain. So I will have to rebuild that part of town. Really annoying that the processing plant can't feed both the power plant and the aggregate storage, it's either or, so I'm stuck with keeping an eye on the storage levels of both and turning the conveyor tower to the storage on and off accordingly.
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May 6, 2019 10:26
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