Surviving Mars |OT| Let's science the **** out of this.

[Aaron D.]

Microsoft Windows, Mac/Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One ($39.99)

-Review Thread

Colonize Mars and discover her secrets, with minimal casualties.
Welcome Home! The time has come to stake your claim on the Red Planet and build the first functioning human colonies on Mars! All you need are supplies, oxygen, decades of training, experience with sandstorms, and a can-do attitude to discover the purpose of those weird black cubes that appeared out of nowhere. With a bit of sprucing up, this place is going to be awesome!

Surviving Mars is a sci-fi city builder all about colonizing Mars and surviving the process. Choose a space agency for resources and financial support before determining a location for your colony. Build domes and infrastructure, research new possibilities and utilize drones to unlock more elaborate ways to shape and expand your settlement. Cultivate your own food, mine minerals or just relax by the bar after a hard day's work. Most important of all, though, is keeping your colonists alive. Not an easy task on a strange new planet.

There will be challenges to overcome. Execute your strategy and improve your colony's chances of survival while unlocking the mysteries of this alien world. Are you ready? Mars is waiting for you.

Main Features:

Building on a planet not fit for human life challenges you to build a smart, functional colony. Bad planning isn't about traffic jams, it's about survival of your colonists. You really don't want rolling blackouts in a city constructed in a place without oxygen.

Each colonist is a unique individual with problems and strengths that influence the needs and behavior of the other colonists. Things can get really interesting if your chief scientists develops alcoholism after one too many long nights in the lab.

Retro-futuristic super structures housing colonists, factories and commercial buildings with their own "neighborhood personality." Create colonies that value science over everything else, while tired workers drink their pay away at a local bar, or attempt a utopia among the stars.

Inspired by the classic sci-fi of Asimov and Clarke, Surviving Mars holds many secrets. During each playthrough players may encounter one of Mars' individually crafted mysteries. Uncovering these secrets might bring your colony great fortune, or terrible ruin. What is that sphere that manifested itself outside colony HUB B, and is it friendly?

Combine static and random research through experimentation, which allows for a different experience for each journey through the game. Attain new scientific breakthroughs by exploring the uncharted terrain of Mars's surface.

A sleek, modern take on the bright futurism of the 1960s. A time of exploration and adventure.

Craft your own fantastic buildings, parks or even a mystery to share through Surviving Mars's extensive and convenient modding tools. Share your finest creations with the community to build the perfect society.

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[Nyx]

Thanks for making this!
Going to play some more tonight and save all my questions for here. :)

 

[bshock]

Nice OT, thanks!

Loving the game. Took me a couple restarts but I've an understanding of the basic systems in place and have begun to develop a pretty nice colony on my current game.

 

[Aaron D.]

Skye Storme has a great opening move that I'm totally gonna nick.

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Before building anything he pauses the game and plops a dome down, centralized to initial resources. Then he runs power lines around it and radiates them out in spokes.

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He deletes the dome, un-pauses and produces the power lines. The spokes become his production lines, where he also builds O2/H2O lines directly over the power lines.

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When the production prep is finished and the dome is ready, he has a perfect spot ready to be set in like a puzzle piece.

Looks neat, tidy & ergonomic.

 

[ghostcrew]

Skye Storme has a great opening move that I'm totally gonna nick.



Before building anything he pauses the game and plops a dome down, centralized to initial resources. Then he runs power lines around it and radiates them out in spokes.



He deletes the dome, un-pauses and produces the power lines. The spokes become his production lines, where he also builds O2/H20 lines directly over the power lines.



When the production prep is finished and the dome is ready, he has a perfect spot ready to be set in like a puzzle piece.

Looks neat, tidy & ergonomic.

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This is super cool. Great trick!

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

Posted elsewhere but I may as well repost here:

I played for about four or so hours yesterday. I started one colony and played for an hour just to learn the basics and then restarted and played for about three hours after that. My second colony now has 23 residents! I've got a Polymer, Machine Parts, and Electronics factory up and running so I should be self sustaining for a while. The biggest problem I have right now is that my colony is so water constrained as I did not have a good source of water nearby. I have 4 water evaporators and don't have the tech to build more, and I am out of funding so I can't purchase anymore. I do now have my second dome next to some rare metals so I should be able to export some and get some more money to maybe buy some more evaporators and some other emergency supplies. The only major disaster I've had as of yet was a meteor shower, and luckily I was able to build some cables and pipes to bypass broken areas. After that I simply doubled all pipelines and cables to my domes and co-located water towers and oxygen tanks next to them. So far the game is really fun and I didn't want to stop playing last night!

 

[SuikerBrood]

Nice OT.

Going to play some more this weekend. Didn't really have time yesterday.

 

[QuixoticNeutral]

This looks like the game that many were apparently hoping for when they realized the frenetic, skirmish-based, underplayed RTS Offworld Trading Company was leaner and quicker than the sustained, long-term Martian city-builder it looked like from screenshots.

I'm wary enough of the DLC model in recent Tropico games that I may hold out to hear more before I jump in, though. The cost of entry is too steep for me when I don't know what's coming (except that something is coming, since there is already a season pass). Definitely keeping this in mind, though. I'm kind of drowning in colony sims as it is, but it's true that none of them are exactly a tidy building-plopping experience like SimCity or Tropico, since the Dwarf Fortress template followed by RimWorld or Oxygen Not Included is more in vogue these days.

Might want to add to the OP that Mac/Linux support is already in right at launch.

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

This looks like the game that many were apparently hoping for when they realized the frenetic, skirmish-based, underplayed RTS Offworld Trading Company was leaner and quicker than the sustained, long-term Martian city-builder it looked like from screenshots.

I'm wary enough of the DLC model in recent Tropico games that I may hold out to hear more before I jump in, though. The cost of entry is too steep for me when I don't know what's coming (except that something is coming, since there is already a season pass). Definitely keeping this in mind, though. I'm kind of drowning in colony sims as it is, but it's true that none of them are exactly a tidy building-plopping experience like SimCity or Tropico, since the Dwarf Fortress template followed by RimWorld or Oxygen Not Included is more in vogue these days.

Might want to add to the OP that Mac/Linux support is already in right at launch.

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I think DLC models and pricing have more to do with the publisher than the developer. I would look at the other Paradox Interactive DLC models. I thought they handled Stellaris and Cities: Skylines pretty decently.

Also, I heard talk of bugs for Mac/Linux on launch yesterday in the official livestream on Twitch. Not sure if they were resolved.

 

[rsfour]

Just picked this up, gonna give it a shot

 

[Aaron D.]

Might want to add to the OP that Mac/Linux support is already in right at launch.

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Thanks for the heads-up. Updated the OP.

Also, I heard talk of bugs for Mac/Linux on launch yesterday in the official livestream on Twitch. Not sure if they were resolved.

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The dev pushed a quick patch today (in addition to the Day One patch).

Here's what they said in the Patch Notes.

"Regarding Mac issues: We want to reassure you that we are very aware of them and it's on the top of our list and we are working very hard to get it all sorted. We're very sorry for the inconvenience and we appreciate your patience."

Looks like the game is getting strong post-launch support so far.

 

[bargeparty]

I haven't read through reviews or anything like that, but I played it a fair bit last night and I do not like how much micromanagement is needed for the maintenance of buildings. Yes, I know you can ctrl+click to request maintenance on the same buildings if you have multiples, like multiple wind turbines or something, but that only helps so much.

Oh yeah drone management. Can't select more than 1 to re-assign, I mean...

 

[Nyx]

So, why don't my drones build a concrete extractor while the mats are there and there's a rover nearby?

They're idle right next to it and when I click the 'blueprint' of the extractor it says 5/5 and 2/2 mats.

 

[Bio]

My current colony (not the only one I've created, or even the furthest along, but probably going to be the most sustainable yet)

 

[Nyx]

Jeez, it said 5/6. Damn those small letters and/or my eyes lol.

 

[visvim]

I watched Day9 streaming this a while back and thought it looked great, but after playing it myself I am not so into it. There is just a little bit too much going on for me, I feel kind of stressed when I play it which is odd considering how many hours I put in to Factorio

 

[Mindlog]

This looks like the game that many were apparently hoping for when they realized the frenetic, skirmish-based, underplayed RTS Offworld Trading Company was leaner and quicker than the sustained, long-term Martian city-builder it looked like from screenshots.

I'm wary enough of the DLC model in recent Tropico games that I may hold out to hear more before I jump in, though.

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I've been a huge fan of the Tropico series and I'm liking this game quite a bit.
However, the current path to success seems very rigid and generally barebones. I can't help shake the feeling that what we currently have is just the solid foundation and we can expect a very very very large amount of DLC.

Happy to support more sim games everywhere. Hope some of the updates filter to all players and not just those that bought the season pass. I'm still on the fence about that aspect.

 

[SJRB]

Been playing it all day, this game is GREAT. Building a Mars colony has been a dream for me for so long, I'm really glad this game delivered.

My first map is a total clusterfuck because I'm still learning what all buildings do and how they connect, but I have my first dome and the first Founders survived the 10 Sols.


Edit okay literally 2 minutes after typing this I get hit with a random Meteor Storm that is lasting 1.5 Sol. My base is getting wrecked. Seriously, this is bullshit.

 

[Aaron D.]

It's a small thing, but I'm really digging the custom ship logos that are showing up in the Workshop.

 

[Mindlog]

I wonder how hard a new planet or setting would be.

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

I wish I had the money for this.

I get huge Oasis vibes whenever I see pics of the beginning areas.

Absolutely love the concept of foreign planet colonization and survival.

While I adore the retro future aesthetic I do hope we will see some mods that make it more like Oasis with it's modern monolithic cement like structures which I think is a more practical and realistic approach to building in such a harsh environment with limited resources.

 

[Mindlog]

There's a 100% chance of more aesthetic options from both mods and DLC.

I've run into... an issue.
Making a tunnel from my starting base to build a plateau base. All my plateau drones decided they could find an impossible path to the base below. Now they're out of juice and I can't refuel them. I don't know what my options are.

Scrapped them all and bought some more from earth. Not an elegant solution, but it works.

 

[Bio]

There's a 100% chance of more aesthetic options from both mods and DLC.

I've run into... an issue.
Making a tunnel from my starting base to build a plateau base. All my plateau drones decided they could find an impossible path to the base below. Now they're out of juice and I can't refuel them. I don't know what my options are.

Scrapped them all and bought some more from earth. Not an elegant solution, but it works.

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This is definitely an annoying aspect of the game. I had one rover completely die not five feet from a recharging station, and there was nothing I could do to fix it. I couldn't nudge it to the station, I couldn't build another one right on it (even though when using the recharge station while not dead, they don't need to be even as close as this rover was), and I couldn't repair it with drones.

It's possible that there is research tech I haven't unlocked yet which would allow me to address that, but I've unlocked about 45 of the 70 possible techs so far and not seen anything like that. If it's just a bug, I hope it gets fixed soon. I've found myself being far more careful with my rovers than I probably need to be as a result.

 

[Soap]

On the fence about this. I love Tropico and city building games, but I've heard there isn't much depth further in?

 

[xrnzaaas]

Anyone playing this on the PS4? How does it run and control?

 

[Nyx]

Anyone playing this on the PS4? How does it run and control?

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Runs and controls fine. I haven't made a big colony yet though.

 

[Jimbobsmells]

Anyone been having some issues with menus on PS4? Like pressing start and nothing happening, but eventually the menu appears 2-3 mins later?

 

[Bio]

Anyone been having some issues with menus on PS4? Like pressing start and nothing happening, but eventually the menu appears 2-3 mins later?

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No, nothing like that. I did run into a glitch a few times where I couldn't highlight objects/people at all, and the only way to fix that was to hit L2 to bring up the Main menu, then exit, after which I could properly select other things.

 

[Bio]

Anyone playing this on the PS4? How does it run and control?

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Yeah I've put about 50 hours into it for review. More or less it controls surprisingly well, and the frame rate is rock solid.

Building things is especially easy. You bring up your build menu with Triangle, and you can quickly sort through the main categories with R1 and L1, and then drill down with right and left on the d-pad. Very easy, quick and efficient. You can scroll through things very quickly.

Maintaining, repairing and salvaging buildings and/or managing your colonists is less fluid. You have to highlight the desired building/object/person and then hit R2, then right on d-pad to even get into the submenu for that thing. You have 2-5 horizontal subcategories and 5-6 vertical ones, and you can't drill down on the vertical ones unless you're at the left-most horizontal option. In this case how quickly you scroll through menus hampers rather than helps you.

Late in game it can get annoying if you have a ton of shit packed closely together, because the control stick just isn't as accurate as a mouse so you'll accidentally highlight the wrong thing and then have to mash X to scroll through all nearby objects until you get the right one.

I can't say for certain but given the level of complexity in the game I have to believe the PC version is superior in terms of controls, but I don't think you'll have any trouble on the PS4 if you want to go that route. It's weird, and a bit ungainly, but for the level of control they give you I'm not sure how they could have done it much better.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Runs and controls fine. I haven't made a big colony yet though.

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Yeah I've put about 50 hours into it for review. More or less it controls surprisingly well, and the frame rate is rock solid.

Building things is especially easy. You bring up your build menu with Triangle, and you can quickly sort through the main categories with R1 and L1, and then drill down with right and left on the d-pad. Very easy, quick and efficient. You can scroll through things very quickly.

Maintaining, repairing and salvaging buildings and/or managing your colonists is less fluid. You have to highlight the desired building/object/person and then hit R2, then right on d-pad to even get into the submenu for that thing. You have 2-5 horizontal subcategories and 5-6 vertical ones, and you can't drill down on the vertical ones unless you're at the left-most horizontal option. In this case how quickly you scroll through menus hampers rather than helps you.

Late in game it can get annoying if you have a ton of shit packed closely together, because the control stick just isn't as accurate as a mouse so you'll accidentally highlight the wrong thing and then have to mash X to scroll through all nearby objects until you get the right one.

I can't say for certain but given the level of complexity in the game I have to believe the PC version is superior in terms of controls, but I don't think you'll have any trouble on the PS4 if you want to go that route. It's weird, and a bit ungainly, but for the level of control they give you I'm not sure how they could have done it much better.

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Thanks, the controls don't sound that awful, I will pick up the game when it's on sale. :)

 

[Jimbobsmells]

No, nothing like that. I did run into a glitch a few times where I couldn't highlight objects/people at all, and the only way to fix that was to hit L2 to bring up the Main menu, then exit, after which I could properly select other things.

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Really? The menu system is unbelievably glitchy for me. I just had a situation where I tried to open the research screen and nothing happened, the game froze for a full 2 mins, and then 4 or 5 different menus / selections I made previously popped up and closed at once. Very frustrating at the moment.

 

[Bio]

Really? The menu system is unbelievably glitchy for me. I just had a situation where I tried to open the research screen and nothing happened, the game froze for a full 2 mins, and then 4 or 5 different menus / selections I made previously popped up and closed at once. Very frustrating at the moment.

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That's odd. The game does have some control issues, but nothing like that which I've experienced. I imagine trying to put a system this complex onto a controller is a tall order, because Paradox did put out a pretty significant day zero patch that actually changed functionality a good bit. They might have some more fine tuning to do.

 

[Trickster]

Was really excited for this, but so far it's not quite living up to my hopes, there's just a small handful of things that really stops me getting really into it.

The way domes are completely isolated from one another is just such a bizarre design choice in my view. Like, why can colonists go outside to work machinery, but they can't go the same distance to a neighboring dome for comfort related things? Makes no sense at all.

Trying to expand or do anything outside of your initial area is a giant pain due to the drone ranges, even using the rover command center, just because transferring materials is so cumbersome

Research tree also feels like it take way too long to unlock new meaningful tech, and I say that as someone with a European colony, which are the research experts.


I love the concept, but the initial game just isn't quite there in terms of the experience it delivers imo. However I hope modders take a liking to this game, because if they do then this game is gonna be amazing a few months from now

 

[King_Moc]

Not sure how i've missed this one, seeing as it looks perfect for me. Will check some reviews then probably buy it. Nice OP!

 

[SJRB]

So is there some obvious way to set up "highways" between two colonies I am missing?

How do I quickly deliver general purpose resources to another place, aside from giving a Transporter the specific task every single time?

 

[Remmy2112]

So is there some obvious way to set up "highways" between two colonies I am missing?

How do I quickly deliver general purpose resources to another place, aside from giving a Transporter the specific task every single time?

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Build shuttle hubs and depots at the place that needs the resources. If you have a drone hub/commander there ready to work shuttles will begin ferrying resources, 3 units at a time without upgrades, per trip.

 

[Bio]

So is there some obvious way to set up "highways" between two colonies I am missing?

How do I quickly deliver general purpose resources to another place, aside from giving a Transporter the specific task every single time?

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Depots and Transport Drone supply routes.

Any time you set up depots for specific materials outside domes, drones will deliver excess amounts of those materials to those depots if they are in range.

If they're not, you can use your Transport Rovers to set up supply routes. They will continually transport a resource from one depot to another until you stop them or your deposit runs dry.

To set up a supply route, activate your transport drone's menu, and then scroll to the supply route option. Pick your two end points, and it should start up on its own.

 

[Versipellis]

This is definitely an annoying aspect of the game. I had one rover completely die not five feet from a recharging station, and there was nothing I could do to fix it. I couldn't nudge it to the station, I couldn't build another one right on it (even though when using the recharge station while not dead, they don't need to be even as close as this rover was), and I couldn't repair it with drones..

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Have you tried clicking on it with another rover? This is the standard procedure for transferring energy to vehicles.

 

[Bio]

Have you tried clicking on it with another rover? This is the standard procedure for transferring energy to vehicles.

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Nope, didn't even think of it to be honest. I'll check that out next time it becomes an issue. Thanks :)

 

[Versipellis]

Was really excited for this, but so far it's not quite living up to my hopes, there's just a small handful of things that really stops me getting really into it.

The way domes are completely isolated from one another is just such a bizarre design choice in my view. Like, why can colonists go outside to work machinery, but they can't go the same distance to a neighboring dome for comfort related things? Makes no sense at all.

Trying to expand or do anything outside of your initial area is a giant pain due to the drone ranges, even using the rover command center, just because transferring materials is so cumbersome

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The game clearly has some issues, and isolated domes are one of the most glaring ones if you think of this game as a classic city builder, where services have an area of influence.
In my first "real" game (USA) I did that mistake, but I still need to try a different way of planning, with highly specialized domes and lots of micromanaging. I was surprised that the pace became "quicker" once you can build multiple domes, but soon I realized that you should keep doing things slowly and only when you can really afford it (build a food dome with only botanists in it, have only one metal resource exploited by a single dome of geologists, and so on). Job vacancy and basic resource depletion (for maintenance) are big problems if you expand too quickly.

Connections between domes to create that area of influence effect are not in the works, according to the developers, but Haemimont say that they will listen to players' feedback. But, as I said before, the game is based on a different mechanic.

Transport routes are really basic right now. Shuttles are fine, but more control would be welcome.

Nope, didn't even think of it to be honest. I'll check that out next time it becomes an issue. Thanks :)

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I called it "standard", but actually I discovered it just by trying, so I don't think it was clearly stated anywhere.
You mentioned that you tried repairing it with a drone. It could be that the drone didn't (or doesn't) have enough energy to recharge a rover.

 

[HBK]

Got my game over (unsurprising for a first playthrough). Everyone died on earth. Not bad, I'd say.

 

[SJRB]

Got my game over (unsurprising for a first playthrough). Everyone died on earth. Not bad, I'd say.

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Everyone dying on Earth is a thing you need to take into account?

WTF. How does that work?

 

[HBK]

Everyone dying on Earth is a thing you need to take into account?

WTF. How does that work?

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There are "mysteries" in the game which if I understood right is a challenge to overcome that kicks in at the endgame.

Mine for my first playthrough (where I basically built my colony with little agency) involved, well, bad stuff happening, to earth among other things.

I took "random" at game start and it appears it drew me the hardest one. I'm sure if this didn't happen I would have been able to stabilize my colony. Actually I did stabilize it. The mystery just kept hitting harder and harder and, well, with a wonky colony, it's a slow and painful game over.

 

[karnage10]

I have played for 5 hours and i'm really liking the game. hopefully i won't crash and burn my colony easily, i made a lot of errors at the beginning.

 

[Mindlog]

Anyone been having some issues with menus on PS4? Like pressing start and nothing happening, but eventually the menu appears 2-3 mins later?

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Big time and I just deleted more drones. My colony is only ~150 people right now. I'm planning a massive series of expansions soon.

 

[Kinthalis]

I was worried the moment they announced simultaneous console releases, but it's good? Deep? Not dumbed down? Awesome.

 

[addik]

Thanks for making the OT Aaron D. I'm having a blast trying to figure out the game, though I do find it a bit a jarring with how much it just throws you out there. I guess half of the fun is figuring out how the colony runs?

Still annoyed that, reading through the forum, it seems that there are no ways to connect one dome to another. With how small the basic dome is, you really can't do much with it and there's always that one colonist asking for that one thing you can no longer provide with how little the space is. I guess that's when micromanaging domes according to traits come in but still pretty annoyed at that though.

Anyway, I'm still in my first dome, and I just made my second dome (although no one is living in there yet). I wonder if I should start separating my gamblers from the fit people, so that I can build a casino on my second dome, and not have to remove my gym on my first dome.

 

[Vic_Viper]

Anyone have a really good tutorial for beginners that explains what im supposed to be doing from the beginning? Ive watched a few and they seem even more advanced than what im looking for lol.

This game looks awesome and exactly the type of game Ive been wanting, but I cant help but feel like its missing a major component for newcomers. How could they think it was ok to release without some sort of tutorial or mission set that teaches the games mechanics. After setting up a Concrete Extractor, the game jsut stops giving me hints and expects me to just read through the hints list to figure out what to do next.

I shouldnt have to go to Youtube to figure out how to play a game lol. Atleast games like They Are Billions gives you enough to get started, then you go to Youtube for advanced game help.

 

[karnage10]

Anyone have a really good tutorial for beginners that explains what im supposed to be doing from the beginning? Ive watched a few and they seem even more advanced than what im looking for lol.

This game looks awesome and exactly the type of game Ive been wanting, but I cant help but feel like its missing a major component for newcomers. How could they think it was ok to release without some sort of tutorial or mission set that teaches the games mechanics. After setting up a Concrete Extractor, the game jsut stops giving me hints and expects me to just read through the hints list to figure out what to do next.

I shouldnt have to go to Youtube to figure out how to play a game lol. Atleast games like They Are Billions gives you enough to get started, then you go to Youtube for advanced game help.

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I have only 5 hours so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Personally i am finding the game easy to learn, just start with "very easy" difficulty. This difficulty gives you so much money you can continually send and receive rockets with the mats you need.
Your 1st objectives are making power, water, o2 and fuel. If you use solar panels then you need a power storage so that you have energy during the night. If you don't have water resource then just "import" the water building from earth
your 2nd objective is making a dome that makes the materials that are needed to maintain the basic infrastructure. For the dome you will need to expand your infrastructure as well as make food.
Your 3rd objective is using the people from the dome to mine metals and rare metals as well as research, food,etc. The rare metals can be sold on earth for a lot of money. The normal metals are used everywhere.

some tips on thing that i found confusing:
- space shuttle building transports materials around BUT uses fuel; build it as soon as you have a good enough fuel supply
- fuel is really important but really hard to make, water is incredibly rare so you need to import a lot of buildings for it.
- research is really important so try to get as much as you can

 

[bshock]

As aforementioned, start on a 'very easy' difficulty game for your first go. I didn't and ended up restarting several times before I had a good understanding of the basic systems. There is absolutely no hand holding in the game bar a few tips on what you may want to build to get started.

I'm hooked at this point. Once you get in the groove, it's highly addictive and I love how each game is different from where you choose to initially land and the randomness of the tech tree. Curious to see what mystery is in play for my current colony as I chose it to be random.