Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Sepiche »

I loaded my old game and after about 10 minutes everyone left all of my research institutes and refused to work in them regardless of the new training level setting.

Looks like I might be giving this patch a few days to ripen. :P
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

Checked to see if I'm patched. I am. Synching still sucks. I like the homage to SMAC on exit. That was missed in the change log.

Sunva.
Sepiche wrote: Thu Apr 05, 2018 6:21 pm I loaded my old game and after about 10 minutes everyone left all of my research institutes and refused to work in them regardless of the new training level setting.

Looks like I might be giving this patch a few days to ripen. :P

Same thing. Trying to figure what I want to do now.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Sepiche »

Sepiche wrote: Thu Apr 05, 2018 6:21 pm I loaded my old game and after about 10 minutes everyone left all of my research institutes and refused to work in them regardless of the new training level setting.

Looks like I might be giving this patch a few days to ripen. :P
Apparently this affects spires too, but only existing saves... new games are fine.

Also, a hot fix is in the works for the major issues from the patch.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

Sepiche wrote: Thu Apr 05, 2018 7:10 pm Apparently this affects spires too, but only existing saves... new games are fine.
Well, they 're fine until the next patch. That's my fear anyway.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Montag »

I manually assigned my scientists to the research buildings and it took.

I do want an adjustable birth rate, not an on off.

I am not surprised on the triboelectric nerf. The toned down idiots should offset this. ON my current game, I just got deep rare metals from the bonus 3 breakthroughs, so I should not be electronics limited.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Montag wrote: Thu Apr 05, 2018 8:02 pm I do want an adjustable birth rate, not an on off.
As I mentioned on the previous page:
I'm hoping this doesn't mess up too many of my favorite mods. For instance, their change to birth control, "Added Birth Control Policy in domes. You can now set births to allowed or forbidden (Ctrl + LMB sets birth control policy in all domes)", isn't as good as the Nurseries Limit Births mod which limits birth to the available nursery slots.
So far it doesn't seem that the patch messed up that mod.

Also I started a new game and now my rockets can lift off from Mars. I haven't gotten into having colonist on the ground, but since there might be a conflict, I disabled these mods I had been using:
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

Montag wrote: Thu Apr 05, 2018 8:02 pm I manually assigned my scientists to the research buildings and it took.

I do want an adjustable birth rate, not an on off.

I am not surprised on the triboelectric nerf. The toned down idiots should offset this. ON my current game, I just got deep rare metals from the bonus 3 breakthroughs, so I should not be electronics limited.
Good for you. I tried to manually assign people and then nearly 20% of my workforce were unemployed and moving to the wrong the domes and doing nothing and I got fed up when I was many hours into a complete the Engineering tree research before sol 100 as USA.

I think this is now "let it cook before coming back to it", for which I don't have a good track record of coming back to games when something turns me off. :(
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Small update from the devs this morning:
Hey everybody! You've probably noticed a quick download if you play on Steam! We got a new hotfix done and it is live NOW on Steam! Not a lot but here are the changes:
Fixed an issue where sometimes after Dust Storms, rockets won't be able to launch from Mars
Fixed an issue with some buildings not getting any workers
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

Thank you! I was looking for and hoping for this, though I was happy to Nick's report of free CKII. I figured that would be my shiny for awhile, but my hear was setting this down and not returning to it.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Montag »

Small patch out that fixes the buildings without workers issue.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

I've got 86 hours in this now, which is surprising seeing as how it was going to be only a holdover till Far Cry 5 was released. Turns out I played it a lot after then, including this session, the info pulled from Green Man Gaming (I ordered SM through them):
March 31, 2018 21:51
Game Activity
Played Surviving Mars for 12 hours and 10 minutes, bringing the total time played to a total of 68 hours
Well, that seemed like a lot, till I looked at the next entry above:
April 3, 2018 07:31
Game Activity
Played Surviving Mars for 13 hours and 21 minutes, bringing the total time played to a total of 81 hours and 21 minutes
By the way, they also have this clever pie chart of hours played, again of games ordered through GMG:

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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

As someone who wants to play all of the mysteries but does not want to try all outcomes to all of the mysteries I found this

https://survivingmars.gamepedia.com/Mysteries_of_Mars

I'm currently on the third easy mystery with the Blue whatever it's called. The mystery hasn't started yet...
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

News from the devs regarding the next update: Dev Diary 9: Opportunity by Boian Spasov from Haemimont Games
Surviving Mars was always planned as a game that we will keep improving and supporting post-release. The upcoming Opportunity patch is our first... well - opportunity, to add significant features to the game and evolve it in response to your feedback. In this dev diary, I will provide a brief overview with the shiny stuff in the upcoming patch and our reasoning for adding them to the game. All the features I am going to talk about are free and will become available to every owner of the game as the patch releases in the very near future.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Some more information on the Opportunity update, posted via reddit:
  • Some game rules are incompatible with others - currently only the No Disasters and high disasters ones. No new achievements for now.
  • If a storage runs out of power or malfunctions a large part of its resources become inaccessible but there's a small pallet of up to 30 resources that remains active even then (basically the mechanism that moves the pallets doesn't work).
  • Can Passages only be built in a straight line? - No, they can curve so you can connect any 2 nearby domes.
  • What are the length limitations on a passage (both shortest and longest)? - passages can be 16 hexes total length max
  • Do they have to connect to a square next to a pathway and airlock, like all the examples in the screenshot? - no they don't need to be connected to an airlock. I just have a knack of building them that way.
  • Do passages require maintenance? - Currently passages don't have maintenance though we're still deliberating on this.
  • Can they develop pipe leaks or cable faults? - They can't develop leaks or faults but they can get fractures like domes if hit by a meteor
  • Can buildings that need power/water access be built alongside the passage and get power/water from them? - No, you'll need to connect your buildings to the dome.​
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

100+ days in to the Artificial Intelligence mystery and I'm wondering if there is a trigger I'm missing.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Stefan Stirzaker »

Think i'm done with my sedcond game as europe, poor planning got me to 100 days but then had a metal crisis with a food crisis that I don't think I can get out of.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

My most common crisis is an old people crisis. I think the old people work until they die is the most valuable breakthrough there is. You can create a retirement dome (or a few) but then you still have to micromanage them in to it.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

LordMortis wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 9:28 pm 100+ days in to the Artificial Intelligence mystery and I'm wondering if there is a trigger I'm missing.
I haven't done this mystery so I don't know. Have you solved it? I put the info on Objectives for this mystery in spoiler tags in case you want to look.
Spoiler:
Artificial Intelligence

Objectives
Build a Building Network Node
Research the Number Six Tracing Breakthrough (20000 Research)
Investigate the AI Hardware anomaly
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

jztemple2 wrote: Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:34 pm
LordMortis wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 9:28 pm 100+ days in to the Artificial Intelligence mystery and I'm wondering if there is a trigger I'm missing.
I haven't done this mystery so I don't know. Have you solved it? I put the info on Objectives for this mystery in spoiler tags in case you want to look.
Spoiler:
Artificial Intelligence

Objectives
Build a Building Network Node
Research the Number Six Tracing Breakthrough (20000 Research)
Investigate the AI Hardware anomaly

Not yet but I'm finally advancing it again. I'm guessing the trigger was either a certain amount of advancements or hitting a certain amount of research per SOL.

AI Spoiler
Spoiler:
Smith Asked me turn off the AI. The AI asked for more space. I said we should all talk, and Six got pissed off. Angry something or other to come soon...
Maybe all of the mysteries after the easy ones are longer. I guess that's a good thing. I just go accustomed to wrapping them up in 50 or 80 sols with no long periods in between movement. I think I did the hint: requirements by sol for the AI and it took until sol 109 to start advancing again. Add that it said I gained a free tech, when I did not, I was confused, hoping the tech wasn't really a new breakthrough I was supposed to research.

On Sol 109, this is the furthest I've gone into a play through as I move on to the next nationality and mystery once I've completed a mystery. I'm in a sector with almost no water so I have a pretty large network of moisture farms. My sector has meteor threat 4, so I really do need to make more tanks. :o

Age is really becoming a problem. Self sufficiency could be feasible, only trying to find room for all out of the workforce seniors is brutal. I also have too many children living in non children areas, creating a homeless problem. I would use the new turn children off feature in some of my domes but I need them so I can expand and make the retirement villages for retirees that need to manually forced into their oldfolks homes with required workers to support them....

I'm also wondering when officers will become part of the game. Maybe it's expected that you have angry unemployed or homeless or unfulfilled or insane people and I've just been overly concerned with maintaining a martian baby factory and retirement village utopia.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

Finished the AI mystery. Now on to the Dredgers, whatever that is. :D
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Opportunity update coming for PC/Mac/Linux April 25th, consoles shortly afterwards (combined Spirit/Opportunity update). Great, the day after BattleTech releases :doh:

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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Stefan Stirzaker »

Doh!
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Sepiche »

LordMortis wrote: Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:19 pm I'm also wondering when officers will become part of the game. Maybe it's expected that you have angry unemployed or homeless or unfulfilled or insane people and I've just been overly concerned with maintaining a martian baby factory and retirement village utopia.
Yeah, I haven't really found a need for them yet... I don't think I've ever seen a renegade.

I wonder if there's a different build path you can go down where you save resources and workers by not building amenities and rely on officers to keep order. I feel like you'd run into issues getting people to reproduce if you were too harsh though.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

I saw a renegade once and then meh.

I don't build up amenities for security, I do it to make babies, like you say. I imagine if I played long enough, starvation and overpopulation as well as amenities access would all start to figure in to some sort of crime level but the game doesn't justify playing a long game. The sandbox is exceptionally limited. Look another giant dome that does everything. Look another giant dome that does everything thing. Look another giant dome that does everything.

The reason to play for me right now is for the varied experience of breakthroughs, mysteries, and factions (AKA hunting achievements) Maybe some of the other mysteries will require longer games. I was surprised I want to SOL 130 for the AI mysteries. The ones before were usually wrapped by SOL 70 or 80.

I assume there is also a larger roadmap, for instance that may eventually see making babies less of a thing. Or pitting Biorobots against people or who knows. There is lots they can do and I remember one of the purchase options was to subscribe to content.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Hmm, no one has posted in a week? But maybe everyone already knows about the Opportunity Update being released several days ago. Here are the Patch Notes:
Spoiler:
Opportunity changelog

New Features and Buildings:

Passages
You are now able to connect your domes together by constructing Passages. These transportation tunnels allows colonists
to move freely into adjacent domes and utilizing the workplaces and services available there.
- If one Dome has no power, oxygen or water for over a Sol, all passages leading to it are disabled until the problem is
resolved. This will cause workers being fired from their workplaces as if the passage has been destroyed.
- These passages are fragile, and your Colonists may die if hit by a meteor while in the Passage
New Buildings & Related Changes
- New high-end automated storage building which can take over 4,000 units of separate resource is available for your
Colony.
- Added 3 new workshop buildings. Workshops allow colonists to work their vocation providing more employment for the late
game.
- A new Landing pad makes sure the Rocket lands at the designated spot and eliminates the dusting effect of the
surrounding structures
- A new Large Water Tank, storing up to 1,000 units of Water is available to suit the needs of your developing colony
- Added new Milestone related to workshop buildings to reflect achieving post-scarcity vocation-oriented society
- Added new Technologies, which allow construction of Workshops, Automated Storage and Large Water Tank

Game Rules
You can now choose brand new options during game setup to activate additional rule-sets for the mission that will impact the
difficulty, making the mission easier or harder.

Available Game Rules:
- Prefab Colony: Begin with free prefabs for all buildings necessary for a small colony.
- No Disasters: Disables all disasters (excluding those coming from mysteries).
- Hunger: Can't import food from Earth.
- Inflation: Import prices increase over time.
- Long Ride: Rocket travel time to and from Mars is three times longer.
- The Last Ark: Can call a Passenger Rocket only once.
- Amateurs: No specialist applicants.
- Rebel Yell: Colonists periodically become renegades. Crime is more severe.
- Chaos Theory: Tech fields are fully randomized.
- Winter is coming: Cold Wave rating set to a new Max level for all locations on Mars. Cold waves increase power
consumption even more.
- Armageddon: Meteor rating set to a new Max level for all locations on Mars.
- Dust in the Wind: Dust Storm rating set to a new Max level for all locations on Mars.
- Twister: Dust Devil rating set to a new Max level for all locations on Mars.
Other fixes and improvements:

Balance:
- Added upgrades to the Mohole Mine and the Excavator to increase production

UI:
- 3 new notifications: for busy drone hubs, busy shuttle hubs, out of fuel shuttle hubs
- Better alignment for traits in school
- Added on-screen notification for split Power/Life support networks (by player actions or meteorites)
- Colonists with special traits, coming from a rocket, will no longer be pinned for colonies with over 100 colonists
- Fixed overlapping of deposits (from random map generation and anomalies)
- Storages and Depots are divided in subcategories of the Build Menu
- " Milestone failed" message alignment fix


General Fixes:
- Fixed air producers (wrong) production in some cases
- Fixed calculation of challenge bonus in milestones
- Fixed Triboelectric Scrubber not rotating after first clean
- Fixed TOS to no longer reappear when changing language
- Fixed a bug where more than the maximum number of colonists in a Dome can have homes and/or work
- Fixed an issue with unemployed statistics in Dome not updated when moving a Colonist
- Fixed a bug where turned off/malfunctioned supply storages (incl. Batteries) would reconnect to grid after modifying any of their storage props
- Fixed upside-down positioning of shuttles
- Fixed an issue where colonists became starving from eating uncooked meals
- Androids now have no initial specialization
- Marsgate Mystery: Fixed Rover Command AI tech to not affects hostile rovers
- Marsgate Mystery: Fixes for hostile rovers to prevent them from salvage after battery drain
- Fix for Autonomous sensors to not show "outside drone control" icon after Autonomous Sensors tech is researched if sensors are build prior research completion
- Beyond Earth Mystery: Fix for saves swarmed by trade rockets, causing infinite loop from pinned rockets
- Fixes on Polymer Factory production (now depends on its workers)
- Fix for some edge cases of automated routes for Transport Rover
- Fix for chance for crime prevention (capped at 50% when Security Officers outnumber renegades 3 to 1)
- Fix for Waste Rock production to now properly depend on the grade of Concrete, Metals and Rare Metals deposit used
- Fix for colonists and drones to stop going through Spires
- Improved estimation of the load of the drone controllers (Hub, Rover, Rocket)
- Buildings are now considered to be in dome range if one of their hexes is inside dome range
- Updated University description
- Clarified immigration policy texts
- Various performance optimizations
- Various stability improvements
- Various sound FX tweaks

Mods:
- Documentation for Effects - building blocks for Mission Sponsor, Commander Profile and Game Rule mod items
- Added "GlobalEffects" mod item
- Default mod preview image format is set to PNG
- Kept backward compatibility with mods that use the old tags system
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Isgrimnur »

Unless there are giant mechs approaching, they may be distracted.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Isgrimnur wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:55 pm Unless there are giant mechs approaching, they may be distracted.
Maybe 'Mechs will be in the first DLC for the game. Couldn't hurt! :D
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Stefan Stirzaker »

Lol yeah saw patch came out and was yeah maybe after a bit of battletech.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Three domes, connected:

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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Sepiche »

jztemple2 wrote: Fri May 04, 2018 12:56 am Three domes, connected
Nice! I'm hoping to get some time with the new patch soon. So, I haven't been following the connection details... will people living in a dome connected to another use amenities from a connected zone? Do building bonuses effect all connected domes?
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Sepiche wrote: Fri May 04, 2018 11:16 am Nice! I'm hoping to get some time with the new patch soon. So, I haven't been following the connection details... will people living in a dome connected to another use amenities from a connected zone? Do building bonuses effect all connected domes?
Colonists "live" where their residences are located. Passageways allow colonists access to any adjacent dome, although no more than one passageway away (no daisy chaining). You can enable a dome to allow access for services or work or both, controlled by toggles. I think the building bonuses only apply to that dome. Also, there is a penalty for getting services or working in an adjacent dome, although I'm using the No Penalty for Non-Home Domes mod to negate those penalties, as I think just the travel time alone is enough of a penalty.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Since I haven't posted my list for awhile, here it is:

Mods I'm currently using as of May 4th, 2018:

Some of these I have currently disabled either because of a possible conflict with the Opportunity update or because (like the Drones Carry More mod) I've decided to not use them to keep the challenge.

These mods make things a bit better, including automating some manual tasks: These are "cheater" mods, although they don't have that much effect. And these mods try to regulate who lives where and who works where as well: Game Rule Mods And my radio mods:
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Finally started a serious game utilizing the new features of the Opportunity update. The passageways feature is interesting and not as easy to use as it might seem. First of all, I started off in an area where uneven terrain limited the layout of my domes. I finally opted for a three dome configuration where the the two outside domes only connected with the center one, due to the rough terrain. My first dome was one of the outside ones so I decided I would build it with the three basics, infirmary, grocery and diner, in one triangle, use four others for housing and the last for a nursery and the passageway connection to the center dome. In the center I put the space bar, the outdoor gym, the school and the university, plus some hydroponic towers and the connects to the two other domes. The other outside dome mirrored the first one except instead of a nursery I left room for a factory.

What's interesting is that I was boxed in on two of the domes, the southern outside and the center, so I couldn't connect any more domes to them. And this meant that I now had to keep in mind what jobs could be provided for the residents. And this was further complicated when I opened the university and when I started to get seniors who dropped out of the workforce.

So a good lesson from this is to plan the layout of the domes, which I do by placing them but immediately stopping work, this gives me a place holder. And since the passageways have a limited length, that also has to be kept in mind. I'll post some more when I get further along.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

Still Battletech addicted. Opportunity had patched itself into my last game when I set it down. I was working the the Spheres mystery, I'm sure, with the Europeans, I think. I'd have to through through list. I think it's the Europeans because it was around SOL 100 and I almost finished the tech tree, which is atypical for me.

Spoiler?

Spoiler:
I think you are meant to play with batteries, which I don't tend to do, and I think the sphere is charging very slowly because I'm not interested in wasting resources to build and maintain batteries I don't use, so the mystery is progressing very slowly and I just have this sphere hanging out an freezing stuff very slowly charging for ???? I was in no hurry, but at the same time I got distracted by Battletech and have yet to look back.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

My Mars colony died due to poor management. I had only one water source but was so busy building and laying out passageways that I neglected to note that it was running out. The next nearest water was a quarter of the map away from me. A Manhattan Project level of effort was put into place to reach it but it was too late. And I ran out of money before I could buy enough Vaporators.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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LordMortis
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by LordMortis »

jztemple2 wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 11:11 pm My Mars colony died due to poor management. I had only one water source but was so busy building and laying out passageways that I neglected to note that it was running out. The next nearest water was a quarter of the map away from me. A Manhattan Project level of effort was put into place to reach it but it was too late. And I ran out of money before I could buy enough Vaporators.
I monitor water because it's not easily monitored and it's hard to judge when a well will run dry while you are expanding. Until you can build atmospheric water extractors reliably and quickly, it's the one thing I can't bounce back a major problem if a haven't pre-planned. I tend to overbuild water tanks, run drone hubs in range of every well I find whether I build a well or not, and not upgrade extractors all as a safeguard against, "oops! I wasn't paying attention!"
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Sepiche »

LordMortis wrote: Wed May 09, 2018 8:58 am
jztemple2 wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 11:11 pm My Mars colony died due to poor management. I had only one water source but was so busy building and laying out passageways that I neglected to note that it was running out. The next nearest water was a quarter of the map away from me. A Manhattan Project level of effort was put into place to reach it but it was too late. And I ran out of money before I could buy enough Vaporators.
I monitor water because it's not easily monitored and it's hard to judge when a well will run dry while you are expanding. Until you can build atmospheric water extractors reliably and quickly, it's the one thing I can't bounce back a major problem if a haven't pre-planned. I tend to overbuild water tanks, run drone hubs in range of every well I find whether I build a well or not, and not upgrade extractors all as a safeguard against, "oops! I wasn't paying attention!"
Yeah, that's one thing I look at hard when I'm picking a starting site... how much water does it have and how much is nearby to expand to.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by Montag »

I do use batteries for night usage. Works well with scrubbers and shift management. I think the metal cost and maintenance for solar plus polymer on batteries is lower - especially in early game.

I tend to rely on vaporators for water since perpetual resource. It does suck that tech is high on the list and they are not cheap to buy. Maybe us groundwater up until you unlock tech.
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

I restarted the map (first time I tried that, it works well) and this time I ignored the pre-scouted landing square and instead used my five probes to search the plateau in the northwest. I opted for a location that gave me access to rare metals but no water so I could start making some money earlier and would just live with using vaporators for the time being. After some initial expansion I put down two dome, making one a residence and one for some services and farms. I also remembered a crater with four huge water sources from my first playthrough way down on the plain to the southeast so I built a tunnel and a lot of pipes and cables and now have a large reserve of water.

My big problem is money. I've gotten in three groups of colonists, which is enough to staff the services, support the farms and work two shifts on the rare metals mine. Problem is I keep having to fly in the advanced resources since I don't have the people to staff factories. Eventually I'll be able to do this and I think that will turn the corner for me.

Big helps for me are a couple of mods. The first is AutoExplore. This keeps me from having to manually tell my explorer to go here and then go there, go get charged and then remember it's charging. While I agree that too much automation would spoil the game, there's little decision making in moving the explorer around, so this keeps me from spending time on it.

In a similar vein is AutoGatherTransport. When enabled the transport starts gathering metals and polymers on the surface and dumping them at a central location or a depot. Again, it's something I could do myself but the process is pretty boring. So automating it helps. And it means I don't have to be in any rush to open a metals mine.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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Re: Surviving Mars - Start a Colony on Mars, from Haemimont Games/Paradox Interactive

Post by jztemple2 »

Triangle linked dome configuration:

Image
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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