The final update is out now.
I didn’t think I’d ever get the 3 stars to unlock the campaign but I finally did it. I guess I didn’t play that many times, maybe 3-5 on Epic and now 2 on Steam. I don’t know if it was just luck with the research or if something finally just clicked. I was able to get happiness over 100 and got 4 stars.
My guess is both, plus some luck with planets compatible to your playstyle/research path showing up near each other.
Congrats!
Good to hear; hope you enjoy the campaign. It has some good twists on the standard theme, though note that some levels are much harder than others.
I’ve been playing a lot of this over the past month; including moving up from Reasonable to Tough.
I started this yesterday and just got out the first tutorial with 3 stars so I’ll take that! I forgot, and as such neglected, research for far too long but ended up with a colossal, happy system, just not enough prosperous colonies. It’s very satisfying linking a bunch of colonies up and watching them prosper!
(Sorry for the weird crop, only way I could fit it all in.)
That’s huge! I usually go for smaller systems and try to get as many of my planets to Successful as possible. (I mean, really I try to get them to Prosperous, of course, because that’s where the money’s at, but what I mean is that generally I’ll focus on getting to Successful over exploring further.)
Yeah, I got to a certain point and was like… okay LET’S GOOOO. My original intent was to keep a lid on expansion but certain resources were right there! It was fun seeing how far I could go while trying to maintain happiness, and again, I totally forgot to sort my research out so I wonder how I’d have fared with better tech…
Haven’t played this in quite a while. Is it still supported with patches or improvements?
Depends how long quite a while is. I haven’t noticed anything since the June update that released the final part of the campaign, but then I haven’t played since August or so.
Still going colossal, I can’t help it, but second go and I’ve hit five stars with one platinum star! I wasn’t feeling so confident with this run but then I started seeing certain connections after increasing slipway range, and converting the red resource to energy to satisfy unmet needs helped a ton. Enlightenment helped push a few from Established to Successful too.
I’m curious - when you really dig into the game do you get to a point where you can just look at the visual representation of planets and spot potential connections, or does it still involve a lot of clicking/mousing over, alt/ctrl, etc?
While I really enjoyed the game I did find it a lot of work as I couldn’t seem to keep everything in my head. It felt like I had to constantly check and re-check everything before I convinced myself that a 3 or 4 planet grouping could sustain each other.
Each planet having 3 or 4 possible input/output combinations probably didn’t help, or at least I didn’t always find them intuitive enough that I could, say, see an ‘x’ type planet next to a ‘y’ type planet and think “Oh, I just need to scout nearby and hope there’s a ‘z’ type planet, and that’ll connect nicely”…
Yeah, being so new to it I feel like I’m doing a lot of analysing planets but I’ve been enjoying that a lot. I turned on sticky keys so ctrl and alt are toggles which helps keep lots of info up at all times. I also use the toggles in the bottom right to spot unhappy/unproductive places to see if I can improve them. I feel like I’m getting better at understanding the input/output and the light/dark icons at a glance now so I can usually see certain connections between existing colonies fairly quickly. The most time consuming it gets for me is when I’m on the edge of my empire trying to reach out and keep colonies satisfied. That’s when I do a lot of poring over the colony types, possible links and formulating a structure that works. I use undo a lot and try to remember not to do any probes while experimenting. I’ve definitely not got a handle on the earth-like, remnant, jungle, ocean etc. differences yet.
Does anybody know if there’s a way of seeing which resources you’re currently researching? At present I’m eyeballing it but that’s not very efficient!
Good question, and I remember similar concerns when I first started playing. Speaking for myself, it was like any other game with an economy, in that the more I played, the more I internalized the “rules” of the economy, and the more I recognized connections without relying on the (excellent) interface assists. It turns out it’s an intuitive enough economy, even with the goofy robots and bacteria stuff. But even once I felt I had a handle on the economy, as you and @geggis point out, there’s still plenty of opportunity for analysis paralysis.
Or, as I like to call it, “playing very slowly”. :)
What, you mean I can’t “Enjoy the endless possibilities of a space grand strategy game in 60 minutes flat” and “Still be done in time for lunch”?
That’s good to know, thank you both.
I think I just need to put in a decent chunk of time in one go, rather than dipping in and out for short bursts which is my usual pattern.
It’s funny, but I tend to only think of “analysis paralysis” as being an issue when other people are waiting on me, like in a multiplayer boardgame. There’s no such thing as “analysis paralysis” when it’s just me; there are only “massively complex decisions that I maybe need to just stare at for a while before resolving”. The main game I’ve been playing lately is Old World and sometimes I just sit and ponder the map for a while, and it feels like gameplay every bit as much as if I’d been tearing through turns.
But if anyone were watching me, they’d think, “Yep, that dude’s locked up and needs a reboot! He’s analysis paralyzed, all right!”
Absolutely!
I’ve got impatient multiplayer friends/I’m far too slow for my multiplayer friends so I’ve tried to explain how glorious asynchronous multiplayer is but they just aren’t interested in that way of playing. I remember trying to play Armello, Civ V and Age of Wonders 3 with them and it was just horrible feeling like I couldn’t engage with each turn properly (and the more moving parts there are, the more there is to pore over). I love a good stew but not at the expense of everyone else’s enjoyment.
Last time I played was July 2021. :)
My last run was dire. Couldn’t hook any biomass or water up to certain planets so there were a lot of struggling colonies! Slip relays are great but they can also block large portions of space if you aren’t careful…
I wanted to ask if there are other games that are similar to this? Not necessarily space-themed 3X, but that puzzley strategy score-chasing kind of ‘stacking synergies’. The only thing that comes to mind that I’ve played is Reus, perhaps?
Ooh, love the Reus comparison. I’m not sure that would have occurred to me!
Otherwise, that’s an excellent question that I suspect will result in a bunch of people listing their favorite microstrategy games, as I think they were called in one thread. :) But when you talk about “score-chasing stacking synergies”, my brain immediately goes to boardgames.