This economic strategy gem is focused entirely on exploration, expansion and exploitation. Most planets your probes uncover can be colonized. Each requires one or more resources and produces a resource. The goal is to create efficient routes (slipways) so that every planet’s needs are met and the population is happy. There’s also new techs to be researched and goals you can choose from.
Game is turn based with each action taking a number of months. At the end of 25 years,you receive a score based on your empire’s level of development, happiness level, and victory points earned by completing quests. There’s a campaign of some sorts, but I haven’t done well enough in the sandbox to unlock it.
My only complaint is there doesn’t seem to be a way to scroll through your colonies from the planetary view.
Slipways is the regular £13.99 price on Epic Store, but the £10 sales voucher applies - so I just bought it for £3.99 (no idea if the same applies in $).
Looks neat, and I do like the idea of a rapid playing 3X game (or is that 4X-1?)
I haven’t played the full release yet, but based on the demo, 6.99 is a steal for a game of this quality. Been looking forward to this one and already bought, just been busy this week.
This is one of those games that isn’t a puzzle game, but can very much feel like one as you try and make connections between the different planets and such, without hamstringing something else. I wonder if fans of Logistical would get into this. @BrianRubin
Potentially stupid question here: I logged into EGS and see my $10 coupon is claimed, so I don’t have one. If I buy this game, will I get another $10 coupon because the game costs more than $15?
I got it but I must say, I don’t like the full blown version as much as the original PICO8 one: although I like the zoomed out view, I find all the extra fluff to be just… bloat, and overcomplication. The original’s simplicity is much more enjoyable to me.
Yeah, I took the advice about “no struggling planets” to heart and basically never had one.
In my second game (the first mission on the campaign) it’s a lot harder (on normal), or at least it seems to be. Makes me think the default rules they set you up with when I clicked “skip setup” include “easy” for difficulty…
I started out with a few bad runs, largely because I didnt click on planets so I didn’t understand that extra routes were still useful if a planet’s needs were fulfilled, then picked the right perks and races and got close to 16k.
Tech is amazing for just dealing with those extra little niggles that stop you getting lots of prosperous planets.
Yeah, the more I play the more I think my first run was a combination of easy + luck of the draw, planet wise. Which is why I asked the question, I don’t think I’m some kind of 3X savant or anything.
My first run was 4,500. I switched to fixing struggling planets about halfway through and realized I could benefit from extra import lanes in the last quarter of it. The first few turns were brain-wracking until I understood that an unsupplied planet could still supply another planet and I didn’t always need to find self-sufficient triangles or squares of planets.
I really like this game; the decisions are similar to those in the overland map in Flamebreak, even though the genres are different and probabilistic exploration and acquisition decisions prior to committing to exploration plays a larger role in Flamebreak.
