This game seems proof we shouldn’t really go to mars. :)
Wow that’s… really not something that should have survived even basic testing. Going to punt this one off the wishlist for now because that seems to speak to a broader design problem.
So, uh, how IS Surviving Mars these days?
Those were exactly my thoughts. Love the aesthetic they have, but seems like it needs a lot more time in the oven.
I thought this was a soft launch into Early Access, but it looks like 1.0. Huh.
377MB patched dropped. Wish me luck.
Patch notes
Patch #2
Please note that some changes contain story spoilers; these are labelled as such.
Changelog
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Increased the amount of Resource Veins on the planet. This should make it less likely to completely run out of certain resources.
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You will now receive an alert when REDACTED
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Autosaves are now separate for Campaign and Sandbox modes.
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Reduced the risk of buildings catching on fire due to high oxygen levels in the atmosphere
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Fixed several dialogue issues.
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Fixed an issue where disabling V-sync would cap the FPS.
Thanks for the patch noticed. I continued my normal difficulty save and didn’t notice a resource difference. Edit: Devs say a new game is required for resource changes to take effect.
My RNG must have been lucky because I’m ok so far on most resources.
Some things I learned:
In F4 zoom out and you can see resource rich sectors. I’m working my way to Al and H20 zones.
The icons on the lower left are clickable to bring up menus. Especially helpful for buildings and power. Buildings list isn’t sortable by efficiency or status but the “locate” feature.
The generic “chemicals” resources is a pet peeve of mine, especially as a ChemE. Everything is chemistry. Maybe “organics” would have been a better abstraction.
I just unlocked combat and am about to move into a second sector. Research tree is going to take a while. The alternate terraforming approaches are intriguing.
Would the patch add resources to an existing game ? It’s not clear to me this would work because I’m guessing they allocate resources when you start the game. So you might not notice a difference unless you start a new game. The patch note statement seemed weird and that it said you are less likely to run out of stuff but not but you couldn’t, I guess part of the fun of the game is making sure you don’t waste resources.
Did patch 2 drop? I haven’t gotten an update today yet.
per the Devs in patch 2 discussion notes:
A new save is unfortunately required for these changes in particular due to the way resource spawning is handled
The patch did drop. Restart your Steam.
MUCH IMPROVED distribution of resources. I’m now no longer surrounded by a cluster of just one resource and little else. I’ve got 3 Aluminum, 2 Iron, Bunch of Water, and at least two of everything else. Aluminum is not strangling the pace of the game anymore.
Kinda funny how this is an entirely different game when they actually give you the resources that you need.
Last night I had come across a dev post in reply to the resource issue and how they were pretty sure it was a missed coding error in the 1.0 build.
Let’s make some changes in the 1.0 build and not test it. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
Okay, this game changes so much with resources. People were saying don’t turtle, but you had no choice before because you didn’t have the resources to, say, build a half-dozen maintenance hubs to cover a sprawling base.
Your base shouldn’t be a dense megapolis. It should have some central cores, but it should constantly be reaching out in all directions, like tendrils. Build a ton of worker nodes. In my first games, I limited my worker nodes to about 10 because, again, you simply didn’t have the resources to build the nodes, then build the workers, then replace the workers. And then I ended up wondering why the hell everything was so inefficient. In my current game, I’m over 40+ workers and I’m only operating in two sectors. Hey, the game is fun when it actually works correctly!
Constantly exploit resources and build resource scanners along the way. You’ll build the scanners at your main base at first, but the further they are from the target they are scanning, the longer it takes. I dissembled all my base scanners and build them along my network as I probe into virgin territory. Even on long stretches the network you need small nodes where there are power and maintenance hubs, so that’s a good place to put a scanner.
When you’re tasked with opening up new sectors, put colonies and research stations there. Make sure to build storage facilities there so you don’t have to schlep EVERYTHING from your main base halfway across Mars when you need to build something. You can set minimum levels for materials; the AI will shuttle over materials continually so it’s at the storage facility when you need it. Upgrade your roads linking your main base to your far-flung outposts to make this constant transfer as efficient as possible.
Even with the patch they don’t make Uranium easy to find. I had to probe outwards quite a bit before I find a single vein. (Thankfully, it was 2,000+). They do gate your Uranium levels by making it slow to extract, though.
This is what my current Mars effort looks like. The uranium is the lower left. The scanners detected it and I made a right turn and built a road there immediately.
damn, I bought it pretty much as soon as release hit steam and played 8h straight. I am basically in the last stages of endgame. final tech, last piece of research. I am running out of water. I do not want to restart. I mean, I won’t. I will not go through the whole game again.
Holy crap, Hyperloop.
I’m stuck. I’m supposed to raise Mar’s atmospheric pressure by crashing asteroids into the atmosphere, but the only mission I have for my launchpad is colony migration. Am I supposed to set up a research station on an old base somewhere to unlock the technoogy?
THERE ARE TABS ON THE RESEARCH SCREEN???!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I didn’t get todays patch. Restarting doesn’t help. Is there a version number somewhere? I can’t seem to find one.
Ha ha, you stupidly put all your research into Engineering!
-Tom, who may or may not have done this himself
Is there a way to change the space port’s mission? I ended up building a second to carry out my other special project. I just had a meteor shower hit, but it only took out 1 worker hub so I was lucky. I didn’t try it yesterday, but it easy mode with the patch resources seem to available. Though not a lot of chemicals or carbon so far.
Anyone know if the combat is just in the campaign, or is it there in the sandbox as well?