Surviving Mars

[Darkfyre99]

First, a review by Worth a Buy, because I've generally considered him to be a fair reviewer, and IMO he nailed it. Though I suppose a language warning applies.

Spoiler

[video=youtube;6O6TYI4X0GQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O6TYI4X0GQ[/video]

For a more "all ages" review, here's one from gaming bolt.

Spoiler

[video=youtube;YT-bEetY1Ek]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT-bEetY1Ek[/video]

I've been enjoying this game immensely since buying it, and since I've been home sick, I've been playing it a lot. Just passed the 50 hours played mark.

And because I'm returning to work this morning, I'll quote my first post on this game, on the Playstation Off Topic subforum:

Just happened to see this from the "home" page, and while I'm not playing it on the Playstation, I have been playing it, and because I've been home sick the last couple days, I've been playing it a lot.


First Colony, used a "normal" difficulty sponsor (Europe) with a fairly easy starting location (about 150% difficulty bonus, IIRC), reached 500 colonists, built all the "wonders," reached the point where I spent long periods of time doing nothing but watch.


So I decided to up the difficulty by going with a harder sponsor (Church of the New Ark), and aiming for around 250%.


Second Colony: A very unlucky meteor storm took out the tunnel connecting the two halves of my early colony, my transport drone, and much of water generating infrastructure. I had no reserve of machine parts to repair it. While desperately trying to research "Martian Patents" to get some money to buy more, one half of the colony starved to death, while the other half died of dehydration.


Third Colony: Thanks to a very unlucky starting order for the tech tree, I decided to fast track some research. Colony died of dehydration due to being unable to afford to buy a machine parts factory to keep vital systems running.


Fourth (current) Colony: I had to sacrifice the inhabitants of the "education" dome during a Great Dust Storm, due to realizing I had enough stored oxygen for three days, but the storm would last five. It used the most oxygen, but had the least amount of trained people. Colony has managed to recover from that blow, but the population has plateaued at about 220 thanks to a housing crisis. Currently implementing austerity measures and extra work loads in an effort to build up enough of a safety margin to expand to a fourth site, so my people are not happy.


Current crisis: surface deposits of water and metals are starting to be depleted, and I'm still researching deep extraction technologies. New site will help with the latter, and currently extending the pipe network to a new, though low quality, water deposit.

Since writing this, my sole explorer rover uncovered a miraculous breakthrough: extractor AI. Once researched, this not only allowed me to shift workers from the mines to the factories, though austerity measures remain, but it also means I can create robotic mining camps, which require a lot less resources to establish, including the most precious one of all: people. I've not only established the fourth site, but created a fifth one as well.

Electronics production has increased to the point where I can start training scientists and medics, as opposed to bringing in specialists in from Earth, as well as being more picky about who else travels to Mars. Population has almost doubled, and Earthborn specialists are now only 20% of my population. I've weathered several more 4-5 Sol long dust storms, thanks to having sufficient oxygen storage for eight Sols, plus added additional reserve oxygen plants to bring back online afterwards.

Current bottleneck: Polymer Production. Right now, I have to import additional polymers for projects. Thankfully, I can now almost always export a full load of rare metals with which to buy them. Once I can produce enough locally, this colony will be completely self sufficient.

 

[BulletTrev]

Looks like a buy ta me ( when ma Seagate 'Sea of Thieves' 2TB HD arrives from the big A ) I needs me some more space in ma Cheapo Xbox !

@ Op, I've watched 3 tutorial YT vids and would like to know .... say in.... 1 succinct sentence, what are ya top tips for any budding would be Elon Muskavites ?

 

[Darkfyre99]

Looks like a buy ta me ( when ma Seagate 'Sea of Thieves' 2TB HD arrives from the big A ) I needs me some more space in ma Cheapo Xbox !

@ Op, I've watched 3 tutorial YT vids and would like to know .... say in.... 1 succinct sentence, what are ya top tips for any budding would be Elon Muskavites ?

One sentence? The game is much more fun on the harder difficulties.

Seriously, if your colony isn’t one bad decision away from ruin, you might want to bump up the difficulty 50% for your next game. It’s the disasters and “mysteries” that make this game stand out from your typical city building game.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Its on my list to buy after a few more patches. Looks very interested, but its a bit rough so far from what I gather.

 

[Jonny Shiloh]

I bought this on pre-order (very rare for me) but I'll be honest, I got a bit bored of it sooner than I thought I would. However, the latest patch with its upgrades to game mechanics, and Paradox's commitment to making it better, is tempting me back. Might give it a spin later.

 

[Jenner]

I bought this on pre-order (very rare for me) but I'll be honest, I got a bit bored of it sooner than I thought I would. However, the latest patch with its upgrades to game mechanics, and Paradox's commitment to making it better, is tempting me back. Might give it a spin later.

Yeah I feel the same way. I picked it up last week, played a few hours and haven't fired it up since. After I created my second dome I started to feel like I'd seen it all already, despite it obviously being quite early in the actual game. There needs to be more to do.

 

[BulletTrev]

Just watched a couple of YTvids by Pinstar so I am.... ( is it OK ta say 'stoked ? what with being typically terribly British old man ( who doesn't 'do high fives' ))..... eager

...to try my hand at colony building again this evening.

 

[BulletTrev]

Hi people, ' would like ta think that I am of average intelligence, but fa goodness sake, I cant figure it out fa tha life o' me ......
..... How do I get my RC Transporter to 'do' a route ( I have tried various different button presses, one thing I can think of is that 'routes' only work if there is a 'depot' either end ?) ?


ps I am playing on the console version also I know how to access the top right RC transporter UI n to tab over to the relevant ...basically what one is supposed to do !


Please help, and thanks fa taking the time to read and hopefully reply

 

[Darkfyre99]

Hi people, ' would like ta think that I am of average intelligence, but fa goodness sake, I cant figure it out fa tha life o' me ......
..... How do I get my RC Transporter to 'do' a route ( I have tried various different button presses, one thing I can think of is that 'routes' only work if there is a 'depot' either end ?) ?


ps I am playing on the console version also I know how to access the top right RC transporter UI n to tab over to the relevant ...basically what one is supposed to do !


Please help, and thanks fa taking the time to read and hopefully reply

Routes don't need depots on either end. I've often used routes to gather resources beyond the range of my drone hubs, and I put the drop off point by a power cable, to recharge after every trip.

I have the PC version myself, but the most common mistake I make when trying to set up a route is accidentally sending a "move" command after setting up the route. I haven't played the latest update yet, but the last version I had played also had difficulty setting up routes that needed to use tunnels. I really should play a campaign to see what's changed.