-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Surviving Mars |OT| Let's science the **** out of this.
- Thread starter Aaron D.
- Start date
To be honest they didn't have much choice, the oxygen was running out. I'll have to remember to not be so reliant on a fusion reactor next time, the surprise electronics shortage I got ensured the whole outpost died pretty quickly.
The game didn't warn me about the shortage and it displayed 100+ units, so I was taken by surprise, although it could have counted the many crates lying here and there from destroyed rovers that I should have salvaged but were out of reach. I'll have to be careful about that if that's the case, I thought it only counted crates in my storage.
The game didn't warn me about the shortage and it displayed 100+ units, so I was taken by surprise, although it could have counted the many crates lying here and there from destroyed rovers that I should have salvaged but were out of reach. I'll have to be careful about that if that's the case, I thought it only counted crates in my storage.
Can't because it's too far from a drone commander, and since I have no way of getting down there with a drone commander I'm kinda at a loss :P
Well, land your next cargo in there with a rover, drones and enough material to build the other end of the tunnel (can be more lax if you have shuttles, they'll bring the goods ) ;)
I played all of sunday and really liked the dynamics of the game. Specially building loooong cable lifelines to pierce into the land, building metal depots along the way, and finishing by creating tunnels to bring water and final lines, then destroying the lifeline. I quickly learned to create loops, to prevent damage-based disruption.
It's pretty involving to keep up with growth, i wish i could have a childbirth control... My citizens are like rabbits, i shouldn t have chosen my first settlers sexy.
Last edited:
Can I just say how much I really, really hate the stupidly tiny basic dome?
Really rattles me when I can't even get all their wants met, let alone have room for kids and their support structures. Also means I'm running on borrowed time since there's no education, and thus no way to replace specialists when they die off and their kids take over, aside from perhaps shipping them back to Earth and bringing in some new applicants (a tedious process if I've ever seen one). And I have to unlock shuttles just to be able to transfer colonists across domes, too? Man, come on. This is ridiculous.
I can already tell this is a game where I try to blow my way through the early game as fast as possible in subsequent playthroughs, because dealing with this many limitations is just not my idea of fun. Everything felt muuuuch better when I finally unlocked the medium dome. I'm probably never playing that church sponsor. 0 research, really? Hell naw, man. I'm staying away from that. If someone else wants to torture their colonists for shits and giggles, be my guest. Maybe I'll read their stories on the subreddit or something.
That all aside, the game certainly has a unique atmosphere and I do actually kind of enjoy how much detail (and thus, micromanagement) there is. I just hope I eventually reach a point where most of the colony takes care of itself...
Really rattles me when I can't even get all their wants met, let alone have room for kids and their support structures. Also means I'm running on borrowed time since there's no education, and thus no way to replace specialists when they die off and their kids take over, aside from perhaps shipping them back to Earth and bringing in some new applicants (a tedious process if I've ever seen one). And I have to unlock shuttles just to be able to transfer colonists across domes, too? Man, come on. This is ridiculous.
I can already tell this is a game where I try to blow my way through the early game as fast as possible in subsequent playthroughs, because dealing with this many limitations is just not my idea of fun. Everything felt muuuuch better when I finally unlocked the medium dome. I'm probably never playing that church sponsor. 0 research, really? Hell naw, man. I'm staying away from that. If someone else wants to torture their colonists for shits and giggles, be my guest. Maybe I'll read their stories on the subreddit or something.
That all aside, the game certainly has a unique atmosphere and I do actually kind of enjoy how much detail (and thus, micromanagement) there is. I just hope I eventually reach a point where most of the colony takes care of itself...
It's only published by Paradox; I think it's actually made by the Tropico devs. It's a city builder, rather than a grand strategy game. There are a lot of emergent gameplay situations and there's a very zen-garden-like feeling to it. It's slow, even at its fastest speed, but so far it's been very relaxing. There are some UI issues right now, and weirdness with selecting units, but if they fix those, it'll be great.
Until you get hit with one of the hard mysteries. Unless you were playing with an easy start and got a very solid, buttery-smooth running colony, when they hit, they hit HARD.
The easy and normal ones seem OK (I solved the hardest "normal" one yesterday). But the hardest ones are definitely hard, and if you're not prepared, they'll game over you.
I would strongly recommend new players to manually select one of the easiest mysteries (ordered first in the list), as for our first game, the three of us who are playing the game took "random", and it drew the hardest ones (the game loves to troll you).
Started playing this yesterday, it was very confusing on the first start until I understood the basic mechanics. Then I started again and I stupidly landed my rocket too far from any concrete depot, so I made my life harder than it was supposed to be. I will do another restart today with the lessons learnt so far. It's maybe a bit too slow on the fastest speed but still very enjoyable. Going for a third start later today.
Yeah I spoke too soon. My second game's challenge was way harder than the first. Didn't help that my domes and power grid were apparently super attractive to meteors this time around, on only 3 bars of meteor risk. I can't even imagine 5 bars.
This game's difficulty curve is really prone to get people off-guard, too.
Everything goes well and then everyone dies. You really have to be two steps ahead of what the game is warning you because a lot of times the warning comes too late and stuff like losing your main water source hurts a lot and it can be very expensive and time consume to replace it.
After you hit the mid game, you really should be thinking about how to put out the fire that hasn't started yet.
Everything goes well and then everyone dies. You really have to be two steps ahead of what the game is warning you because a lot of times the warning comes too late and stuff like losing your main water source hurts a lot and it can be very expensive and time consume to replace it.
After you hit the mid game, you really should be thinking about how to put out the fire that hasn't started yet.
After a few tries with random selection with f-ed up my games, I'll choose the mystery myself for later games. The hard ones are way too hard for my tastes.
Ah, there is the OT! Played Friday evening after work and the whole Sunday. Europe as Sponsor and futurist as a commander. Stopped playing at Sol 400 something to start fresh with the things learned. Solved my first mystery as well and build a few wonders. Some of them, like the bore hole, are very nice to have, others are kind of okay for the cost they have.
Can confirm. All is going well, until it doesn't. I got into a food problem, because I didn't keep an eye on the food reserve and when the warning came that I am on low supplies, things snowballed out of control. People dying, factory's and mines understaffed leads to missing components for maintenance and then everything goes to hell. I turned it around with a lot of exports from earth to stabilize the colony again, but I lost about 150 colonists until then.
Can confirm. All is going well, until it doesn't. I got into a food problem, because I didn't keep an eye on the food reserve and when the warning came that I am on low supplies, things snowballed out of control. People dying, factory's and mines understaffed leads to missing components for maintenance and then everything goes to hell. I turned it around with a lot of exports from earth to stabilize the colony again, but I lost about 150 colonists until then.
Food annoys me because farms can randomly lose entire crops, which depending on where you are in the game, is crippling. I think it has to do with soil quality.
That said, once you unlock Corn (2nd food upgrade), that's it for food.
You do one of the crop that gives +40% to soil quality followed by 2 corns and I have so many food. lol.
I keep making a single farm on every new dome because I am paranoid (plus the bonus to O2 and comfort) but I am drowning in food atm.
That said, once you unlock Corn (2nd food upgrade), that's it for food.
You do one of the crop that gives +40% to soil quality followed by 2 corns and I have so many food. lol.
I keep making a single farm on every new dome because I am paranoid (plus the bonus to O2 and comfort) but I am drowning in food atm.
The most important early-game factory seems to be the polymer factory. The Stirling generators and power accumulators require it for maintenance, and if those break, well, you're pretty much fucked. So, farm, polymer factory, infirmary is my first dome build right now, with some non-specialists mixed in to work the bar, diner, and art store.
The reason I got into trouble was related to my mystery, although the fault was really on my end. That two of my water sources ran dry and I had some crop failures due to this, didn't help much. And 400 peeps can go through you food supplies at an alarming rate. Lesson I learned here is, always check you supplies regularly, because on some resources it can be to late, when you get the warning.
My first real attempt at the game was basically a stagnant colony with little growth so I started a new colony. The first time through I chose SpaceY as the sponsor and their research was just pathetic. This time through I chose Europe and Hydro Engineer and it was like 10 times easier to get starter than the last playthrough. Having a water source and the water reclaimation spire made things so much easier. The biggest problem I ran into was that I had no easy access to rare minerals, so I am entirely reliant on rockets to supply electronics. I discovered a disgustingly rich area with two water sources, three metal sources, and two rare metal sources after I got my second dome up, so I've started to build out a second colony in that area. I'm at about Sol 55 and I have about 75 colonists, which isn't too bad, and I've got room to expand that number pretty significantly. The biggest difference this time around is that the last colony I had like a grand total of 20 researched items by Sol 100, but in this playthrough I've got 27 researched items by Sol 55.
Really interested in this. Seems like a version of the classic Sierra Online disaster "Outpost" that actually works.
Really enjoying this. I'm still in the "learning the basics and restart" phase for me and it just ate away the whole evening.
Only now realized that you are reusing the rockets you send back to Earth. Quite a few things suddenly make a lot more sense now. Ha! I feel so stupid.
I think I have a decent grasp now on how to manage at least the basic things. Next colony is gonna be the real deal.
Only now realized that you are reusing the rockets you send back to Earth. Quite a few things suddenly make a lot more sense now. Ha! I feel so stupid.
I think I have a decent grasp now on how to manage at least the basic things. Next colony is gonna be the real deal.
Just ragequit after I had a dome where somebody was suffocating every minute or so
Well stocked up with oxygen - I even built a couple extra MOXIEs to exclusively supply the dome.
Nope.
Fuck you, game.
Well stocked up with oxygen - I even built a couple extra MOXIEs to exclusively supply the dome.
Nope.
Fuck you, game.
Could just be the homeless or idiots traveling too far between domes.
Apparently the maximum number of domes is 20. I was planning to lay out four more here. You can not keep up with these rabbits. Need to be able to research sterilization tech. Going to build the rest of my wonders then start a new map.
Apparently the maximum number of domes is 20. I was planning to lay out four more here. You can not keep up with these rabbits. Need to be able to research sterilization tech. Going to build the rest of my wonders then start a new map.
My roommate came out and asked me if I was watching Stranger Things due to one of the songs on the soundtrack. It's uncanny.
Welp, I guess this counts as a victory, all milestones done.
And then I just kept playing because don't want to say goodbye to the colony, lol.
Mystery was a "normal" one, but I thought rather easy, more annoying, a bit dangerous on the end, but overall just really annoying
And then I just kept playing because don't want to say goodbye to the colony, lol.
Mystery was a "normal" one, but I thought rather easy, more annoying, a bit dangerous on the end, but overall just really annoying
The Mirror Sphere. When it created the eternal cold wave, I was like "oh no", but then I was like "ok, I can survive". You also choose when to begin it, tho I did not know that, I wonder if you can just leave the sphere alone and not bother with it.
How come when I try to fire one worker it fires the whole shift? Is there a better way to move workers around buildings?
Edit: just be a big, I can't select a single worker on a shift without closing the entire shift
Edit: just be a big, I can't select a single worker on a shift without closing the entire shift
Probably an issue with console versions. You can't ask for increased workload either (it closes the shift). Hopefully fixed in a future patch.
I watched the Martian over the weekend, then saw this thread title, haha so apt.
Played the game for few hours last week, didn't get into it so much. Will give another try.
Played the game for few hours last week, didn't get into it so much. Will give another try.
I'm starting a new game and I find very hard not to pick Europe.
400 research. 200M for every research (400M for breakthroughs). It's too good.
Definetly better than what China and India have to offer even though these two are easier according to the bonus.
Depending on where you start, it might be better than what Blue Sun Corp. has to offer, too. Actually, since you can get what Blue Sun is offering by having the Astrogeology officer; Europe + Astrogeoloy might be a better combo out of just picking International Mars Mission.
400 research. 200M for every research (400M for breakthroughs). It's too good.
Definetly better than what China and India have to offer even though these two are easier according to the bonus.
Depending on where you start, it might be better than what Blue Sun Corp. has to offer, too. Actually, since you can get what Blue Sun is offering by having the Astrogeology officer; Europe + Astrogeoloy might be a better combo out of just picking International Mars Mission.
Made a new start as India, tried something new by deleting one of the default drone hubs and replacing it with a fuel refinery prefab and a few more resources. Was able to build up fuel and a dome and actually been able to send my rockets back to earth fairly quickly this time - I've been mostly only calling for a new rocket when I'm already done with the current one and it's ready to lift off or already returned to earth.
First dome I went Farm/Diner/grocer/medical and was able to get my colonists to have a child before the evaluation time was up. I realized that I can view the Comfort threshold for births in a tooltip on the dome and it's affected by when the medical building is staffed, so I ended up changing around the medic shift hours so they would be working the medical building in the afternoon/night when all my farmers were off work.
Once the Eval period was over I built a rare metal extractor and shipped in 8 geologists to work it, having those rare metals go back to earth and earn money has been really helpful, I've been able to spend money on outsourcing to help make up for India's science deficit.
Haven't gotten yet to the stage of the game I've seen mentioned elsewhere where overpopulation is an issue, right now I'm just trying to get as many people as I can to fill up my new Medium dome.
First dome I went Farm/Diner/grocer/medical and was able to get my colonists to have a child before the evaluation time was up. I realized that I can view the Comfort threshold for births in a tooltip on the dome and it's affected by when the medical building is staffed, so I ended up changing around the medic shift hours so they would be working the medical building in the afternoon/night when all my farmers were off work.
Once the Eval period was over I built a rare metal extractor and shipped in 8 geologists to work it, having those rare metals go back to earth and earn money has been really helpful, I've been able to spend money on outsourcing to help make up for India's science deficit.
Haven't gotten yet to the stage of the game I've seen mentioned elsewhere where overpopulation is an issue, right now I'm just trying to get as many people as I can to fill up my new Medium dome.
Anyone run into the dome fracture bug? I had a mystery related event that essentially caused meteor storms for 10 sols and accumulated 7 fractures in one dome and 2 fractures in two other domes. One dome fully fixed, but the other two only fixed one fracture total and I can't get them to fix at all. I basically just had to build a bunch of moxies to survive. Reached Sol 100 with 42 techs researched and passed my evaluation goal.
Those meteor storms were insanity. I was overworking my colonists to produce polymer to fix the cracks (futility) and one committed suicide.
Those meteor storms were insanity. I was overworking my colonists to produce polymer to fix the cracks (futility) and one committed suicide.
Probably the end of my first colony. I have everything researched and built.
Was on easy and towards the end I was just burning time to get some achievements like Googol. My colony started as the middle dome in the group of three on the right. Was planning on tunneling up quickly, but instead just dropped a rocket and started the expansion as an autonomous unit. Eventually linked them the tunneled to the top left for more rare metals. Built another tunnel to the top for water. One last tunnel to the bottom left for water and minerals. The large concentration of my colony on the plateau was due to windmills. I had large swaths covered in windmills until I eventually replaced them with fusion plants.
Primary takeaways for my next game aside from all the other general tips.
Plan for dome overlap. Best to put some buildings and especially storage between domes.
Build on mesas and plateaus. Windmill efficiency is very nice.
Triboelectric scrubbers are great! Build around them as much as possible.
Bonus pics of my mystery and it's eventual conclusion.
That's most of the spheres that were in my plateau area. Still more everywhere else. Had 16 in total.
Primary takeaways for my next game aside from all the other general tips.
Plan for dome overlap. Best to put some buildings and especially storage between domes.
Build on mesas and plateaus. Windmill efficiency is very nice.
Triboelectric scrubbers are great! Build around them as much as possible.
Bonus pics of my mystery and it's eventual conclusion.
That's most of the spheres that were in my plateau area. Still more everywhere else. Had 16 in total.
Last edited:
Finally started playing. I'm definitely glad I watched Quill's tutorial videos or I'd be completely lost.
These radio stations are great.
These radio stations are great.
I love this game, but I would be happy if eventually it got at least some QoL stuff, from the top of my head:
- Notification when rocket reaches earth, so I know I can bring it back up again.
- Options as to what to pin (so I can disable geniuses and saints being pinned)
- Maybe options as to when to warn you that you are "low" on stuff, I don't actually know how they calculate it, but it cuts too close on some occasions.
- Notification when rocket reaches earth, so I know I can bring it back up again.
- Options as to what to pin (so I can disable geniuses and saints being pinned)
- Maybe options as to when to warn you that you are "low" on stuff, I don't actually know how they calculate it, but it cuts too close on some occasions.
I've put 40 hours into this. I think I'm out for now so I don't get burned out before the expansion content. Will probably put a couple hundred more in once that stuff is all out!
Laying down my second colony. Planned to be a small quick run just to get the Russian landing achievement.
Much more focused on efficiency than my first run. I'm even using valves.
*LIES
Then I hear the tip about micro-networks and how they never break down. My next colony is going to put that information to good use.
*They do break. Almost as frequently as anything else lol. My first two breaks in a new game were both single hex links.
Video
*LIES
Then I hear the tip about micro-networks and how they never break down. My next colony is going to put that information to good use.
*They do break. Almost as frequently as anything else lol. My first two breaks in a new game were both single hex links.
Video
Last edited:
I've just been going blind on this with plans to restart once I get a feel for it... but am having too much fun even with my completely not thought out and utterly hideous colony. Really, really enjoying this, and loving that it's vastly different than Cities: Skylines, while still having that relaxing but engaging loop.
Also for anyone wondering: performance and visual experience thus far on PS4 Pro has been fantastic on my 4K set.
Also for anyone wondering: performance and visual experience thus far on PS4 Pro has been fantastic on my 4K set.
I'm going to get very Dune about water in my next run. All dome and major water users will have a low-maintenance cistern between themselves and the larger pipe network. When appropriate with sub-surface heating.
The pipe network will have valves at every branch. This lets me spend metal instead of other more scarce resources. A system like this also lets me conserve power at night by shutting off extractors if needed. Water will not be wasted. Water is life. Not going to be as aggressive with power lines, but will also try to reduce failure frequency.
Really hope the game can be modded.
The pipe network will have valves at every branch. This lets me spend metal instead of other more scarce resources. A system like this also lets me conserve power at night by shutting off extractors if needed. Water will not be wasted. Water is life. Not going to be as aggressive with power lines, but will also try to reduce failure frequency.
Really hope the game can be modded.
Started my second run (after the Easy Start) as a European Futurist, first breakthrough is automated extractors... Wheee, mining metals and rare metals everywhere without needing a dome!
I guess I ended up with easy configurations so far, the only non-natural deaths I've had so far in my games was when colonists decided to walk between domes on opposite sides of the map (I guess they were too impatient to wait for a shuttle?).
Compared to Planetbase it's much more forgiving. For example most of the work is being done by drones, you can order supplies and colonists from Earth and colonists are able to do jobs they aren't specialized in (though worse, of course). Colonists follow a work schedule instead of walking up to random stations when they feel like it. Your drones are reliable and land before your colonists so you set up a base before sending people in, plus it's much much harder to get locked into a position where you cannot get a replacement for the thing or colonist you lost because doing so would require that thing/colonist. Even if you run out of electronics to fix your only electronics factory you can still use your mission funding to ship some in from Earth.
I've literally lost Planetbase games to a random meteor smashing into my base and killing my only engineer before I could even build a landing pad (for getting new people) or any sort of meteor defense.
I guess I ended up with easy configurations so far, the only non-natural deaths I've had so far in my games was when colonists decided to walk between domes on opposite sides of the map (I guess they were too impatient to wait for a shuttle?).
Compared to Planetbase it's much more forgiving. For example most of the work is being done by drones, you can order supplies and colonists from Earth and colonists are able to do jobs they aren't specialized in (though worse, of course). Colonists follow a work schedule instead of walking up to random stations when they feel like it. Your drones are reliable and land before your colonists so you set up a base before sending people in, plus it's much much harder to get locked into a position where you cannot get a replacement for the thing or colonist you lost because doing so would require that thing/colonist. Even if you run out of electronics to fix your only electronics factory you can still use your mission funding to ship some in from Earth.
I've literally lost Planetbase games to a random meteor smashing into my base and killing my only engineer before I could even build a landing pad (for getting new people) or any sort of meteor defense.
Last edited: