A Thoughtful Review of Ixion

[Einhander]

I recently purchased this game for myself as a holiday gift to myself. Ixion does some interesting things. I'm not a fan of using blanket statements to describe things, so I'll endeavor to elucidate upon what I thought of various mechanics and supporting systems. It is my hope that the developers of this title to take the time to read my little essay, and consider its contents.

For each part I'll present what I found interesting as well what I think could have been done to improve the experience or game play. This isn't a diatribe to point out how I felt about anything so those looking for a scathing review are out of luck. My intention is to help developers grow their skills, not squash them.

First up World Building:
I think Ixion has some alluring world building going on, specifically being trapped in space searching for a new home. I personally think this is a great motivator to push the narrative. The concept of having the best intentions resulting in calamity is also a great plot point. I also personally enjoyed the various reports from exploring science teams as I explored the solar systems. Granting the player the opportunity to humanize their crew and shipboard teams, as well their perspective on a matter is also beneficial to the narrative experience.

I do think that the corporate undertone throughout the game is misused. Not that it isn't interesting, but to be honest clinging to it feels like it impacted too many design choices that I think ultimately prevented Ixion from exploring more. I'll expand on this when I outline game play elements below.

The universe of Ixion's science fiction is interesting, but I think that there were choices made that muddled or complicated design choices that resulted in the game conflicting with it's own identity. Based upon how the game was marketed and the implications of player choice within the outlined narrative, I initially thought the game was going to be focused on a "hard sci-fi" narrative. That's not to say Ixion doesn't have some hard science fiction elements, however the elements it does have clashes when lighter more unrealistic elements interact with them.
For example The game's main motivating plot positions the player in a tyrannical position overseeing the very lives of those marooned in space in an effort to save humanity. The player is expected to manage resources and manpower within an inhospitable environment, with limited space available. At first glance that's a very hard science fiction set up with dire implications implied, however the player is expected to do this by building a "city" within the Tiqqun complete with roads and structures segregated by sections. I don't think developing infrastructure within the Tiqqun is a negative impact to the game, but the method that was chosen to do so works against the logic of the implied in game situation. I'll expand upon this further when I outline game and setting conflicts.

Mining and Resource Collection:
I think the implementation of the mining and resource system was relatively well done. Depending upon how the player chose to go about doing so in game their choices would have a significant impact upon the longevity of a play through. However there were some aspects to it that I found to be needlessly wasteful. For example assigning priority to specific resources for cargo and mining ships. Granted if the player has enough docking and vessels this effectively becomes a minor issue. Yet the current system of prioritization is unfortunately too vague to rely upon.
For example in the early game the player has realistically two options on how to accomplish prioritizing the acquisition of resources. Micro manage their vessel's targets, or hope the prioritization they set up within the fleet manager does what it's designed to do. The reality though is that as the player will inevitably have to micro manage their fleet. Bear in mind I don't think micro management is a negative game play choice, however granting the player a prioritization system that isn't robust enough for intelligent game play is counter productive.
My solution to this problem is to tie in the current available resources of the Tiqqun into the fleet management system along side a hierarchical numbered prioritization system instead of a three value system. That way the player wouldn't need to stop what they're doing to figure out the current flight plan of a specific vessel to determine if they value their current route, as well allow them to set up specific prioritization in advance to mitigate tracking down automated vessels in transit. Granted this wouldn't resolve needing to occasionally check up upon one's cargo and mining vessels, but it would prevent needless shuffling and constant re-prioritization. As the system currently is in game its an exercise in busy work.

[Einhander]

Events, Accidents, and Strikes:
I personally think the incorporation of the various events and conditions are positive to the game play experience, however I think they could have done with more care and consideration. I think its smart to have accidents, and strikes tied to an in game mechanic the player has influence over. To me that's a very good design choice, however there are accidents and strikes that manifest that are outside of the player's control. Bear in mind I don't think this is a bad design choice, but since it is tied to an in game system it should be balanced in a more rational way.
For example the player may encounter multiple accidents and strikes even if their population is working within optimal conditions while their stability is happy. I think the player should be given a reason as to why such events are happening rather than luck of the draw. I don't say this because these events are detractors from the game play, but because there is an established system that the player can influence that determines these events. Granted the in game tutorials say that such events will happen anyways, but the problem there is that directly informs the player that the established mechanics aren't worth paying that much attention to if the player is going to be penalized anyway.
My solution to this is to present the player with events that last for a specific amount of time that may raise the chances of such events occurring. That way the player doesn't devalue the established working condition and stability mechanics.
I also think accidents occur far too frequently even in the best conditions. Personally I think its unreasonable to have 6-7 accidents occur all at the same time at the start of a cycle when conditions are ideal. I could understand such a penalty if the player was making poor choices, but when the player has been proactive and playing intelligently within the defined rules they shouldn't be needlessly penalized. Bear in mind I'm not saying occasional accidents are a negative, but I think they could use more consideration in regard to balancing and reason.

Occasionally the player will encounter requests from the sector populations which I think is a good design choice as it prevents the population from being just a statistic. However, I've noticed that completely ignoring many of their requests is largely more beneficial than negative. There is also a considerable lack of immediate consequences to rejecting a request from the population. Personally I think there should be a carrot and stick approach to such a mechanic.
For example if the player achieves the goal provided by the population then they should be rewarded not just with trust, but with a minor beneficial status condition that applies to the sector population for a short time. Conversely if the player rejects of fails to achieve the provided goal they should have to deal with a penalty. The reason I think this would be beneficial to game play is because "trust" is too general, and if the game is being played well has little value to the player. Also providing different positive and negative conditions as a result to the player's actions are much more intuitive for game play. As it currently stands the player isn't really incentivized to interact with their population more than they absolutely have to.

Then we have the permanent and semi-permanent status conditions that affect the player's population. For example not leaving a system fast enough. I have nothing against a lot of these status conditions because for the most part they make sense like losing Earth. Yes I agree that such a revelation would indeed put a significant damper upon a space faring crew. However general population angst in regard to remaining within a system seems rather silly to me. I understand the point is to motivate the player to continue their journey, I just find fault with the lack of logic that this status condition implies. I'll explain this further when I dig into game and setting conflicts.

Population Control:
I think allowing the player to manage the population is a good design choice, and allows for interesting solutions to solve problems as they arise. However I think the player's level of agency with the population is too limited. Granted depending upon researched elements their agency can increase, and the purpose of non worker population is to fill out colonization numbers. Yet allowing early game non workers to consume shipboard resources doesn't make sense to me. To be honest it greatly conflicts with the point of surviving in space. While the player can research worker priority, to be honest that's a completely useless research if the game is played well. By the time the player can influence the decanting of worker cryopods its already too late to be useful, because by that time they've already set up a system that can handle a massive population without considerable effort.
I also want to point out that forcing non workers into the players population literally makes no logical sense given the setting. Forcing non workers into the population without the player's approval not only limits their in game agency, but needlessly destabilizes a delicate system strained by limited resources. Plus the fact the shipboard population gets upset if the player doesn't decant them, or has too many people in cryopods really doesn't make any logical sense in relation to the setting.
I know I sound a bit harsh on this point, but lets be realistic here from a rational perspective. Would you rather conserve your limited dwindling resources to acquire additional resources and complete infrastructure, or decant a bunch of useless people and squander those resources. This whole scenario implies to the player that their population either doesn't want to survive, or are simply too stupid to survive. It would be different if the non worker population could participate in "on the job training" to influence the working population, but they can't.

Game Play and Setting Conflicts:

Technology and Research:
I think granting the player the agency to influence what research they want is a good design choice. I also think the inclusion of researching upgrades is a great design choice too. I also think that having the player explore solar systems to gain more research is actually pretty cool given the setting. Having said that I think additional consideration should have been applied to the research and tiers.
I'm just going to come out and say it, a lot of the research as it is currently provided to the player makes no sense within the provided setting. The setting is in space, on a ship designed to transport a large population, with the whole designed purpose for colonization. Yet, said vessel completely lacks the required infrastructure or available tech to make that feasible. Granted I understand that the vessel is a work in progress, and was testing it's propulsion, however that's not a rational excuse for a space faring vessel with people onboard. If anything in the given setting the vessel should have been equipped to handle itself if something went wrong, or the vessel arrived at the wrong place. I know that sounds like I'm picking apart the setting, but bear with me here.
The point I'm making here is that the higher tier researches have tech in it that would make more sense as a default or low tier technology. For example, water treatment, nuclear power plant, and algae farming. All are technologies born from Earth that the vessel lacks. The issue here isn't that they're gated behind research, the issue here that I see is that a lot of the research provided to the player is immersion breaking. I really think Ixion's research tiers would have benefited considerably by having it make more sense within the setting.
Consider for a moment that water treatment is gated being tier 4 research, the implications of this implies that the population hasn't been recycling their water. Sure the population doesn't require water as an in game resource, but even that doesn't make sense with the setting.

Resources and Storage:
I think the number of resources allows for reasonably intuitive game play that isn't too complicated. The resources are simple, and are relatively easy to track allowing the player to quickly make choices based upon what they have. Having said that I think there's room for improvement here.

In the case of storage I have to admit I do like that the storage is separated for easy tracking. This allows the player to easily determine a sectors inventory at a glance. However, the storage system is also very limited to the player. For example each basic storage can hold 100 units of a given resource and provides 5 workers to transport/manage their resource. The problem here is that this bottlenecks the players resources though. I think the game would have benefited by separating the storage and workers into two separate structures. For example a low power storage that contains the resource, and another structure that provides workers to transport resources. That way the player would be afforded more agency in controlling their population as well their fluidity of transporting resources; If the player was afforded the capacity to dictate the number of workers for transporting. Personally I've encountered during game play multiple bottlenecks imposed by the 5 worker transport system. I also think the game play could be improved by providing the player with significantly larger storage solutions earlier in the game.

I also think oxygen should be included into the resource list. Personally I think the vessel's population should need to consume both water and oxygen/breathable air as a resource along side food itself. I don't say this to make the game more difficult, but because without such a consideration it completely breaks immersion for the player within the provided setting.

Buildings:
Providing players with the capacity to dictate the placement of their facilities is a sound choice. It grants a degree of creativity, as well customization within the vessel.
Consider this though, how wise is it to have a large empty space within a space faring vessel? This is a tough issue for me, because I understand the reason to provide the player with a clear view of their building placement, but at the same time this design choice conflicts with the established setting. I'm sure I shouldn't need to explain this, but wasting space within a sealed environment is unforgivable as well incredibly dangerous. Considering the amount of damage the Tiqqun suffers throughout its journey. This is completely an immersion issue, and not a game play issue. To resolve this I'd have to suggest a complete design change of the structures and placement system. I know that's a lot to consider, but I just wanted to point it out for the future.
I think the best way to resolve such an issue in the future is to provide the player with a multi-layered system that's module focused rather than terrestrial building centric. Really the issue with the current system is the design choice conflicts with the established setting, and a more space friendly system should have been adopted.
Another thing to consider is the astronomically large size of shipboard facilities. I understand the need to provide players with easily understandable information to determine their layouts, but the sheer size of a lot of the structures provided to the player are counter productive. For example the fire station, memorials, and administrative structures, are comically large. Rationally the only large structures should be those that refine/produce resources, and those that interact with space itself. I bring this up because Immersion wise its actually quite silly for these structures to take up so much space the way they do.
Design wise I think the structures would have benefited more with a bulkhead, compartmentalized look, with the "roads" being corridors instead. Again this is an immersion issue, and the current design just rubs the setting the wrong way.

General Conflicts:
Really I think the game isn't bad or good, just an interesting experience that suffers from a multitude of identity issues. For example clinging to the corporate facade even after the destruction of the corporation to directly influence game play mechanics. I honestly fail to understand why this wasn't immediately discarded from influencing game mechanics after the first jump. I really feel there is a considerable amount of negative possibility space that this game could have explored but simply didn't. Ixion didn't really explore surviving in space, but just dipped its toes into the concept.

I really think more focus should have been placed upon what the population is experiencing during the events of the game. Sure there are events that explore some of it, but it barely scratches the surface. I think exploring the concept of humanity surviving in space could have benefited from balancing moral and logical choices, making the population seem more human by affording more individual level events, and by providing additional context to the goals and desires for the population.

In regard to population disposition, honestly it feels enigmatic, and pointlessly arbitrary. Ixion seems to be designed to continuously lump negative status effects upon the player, but doesn't seem fit to provide positives to offset this. From my perspective the population never seems to bounce back out of their funk resulting in an awkwardly depressing perception of the shipboard population. Bear in mind I'm not talking about stability, just the general disposition conveyed to the player. The game also doesn't convey to the player that the population actually understands their current situation making a lot of the requests they provide the player seem petty, and selfish. I really think Ixion would have benefited if more consideration went into how the player would perceive the population.

To me it seems the game isn't quite certain of what it's goal or identity is. Some aspects explore a more realistic aspect of the setting, while other times it seems mired in trying to be a traditional city builder when it really has no business being one based upon the setting. My perception based upon my experience with the game is that Ixion could have really done with a lot more time planning out what it wanted to be, and how to go about it. As it is now its a game suffering from an identity crisis, with game play lacking the logic required by the setting to rationalize it.

[Cougarific]

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[Einhander]

This review isn't for the benefit of other consumers, its for the benefit of the developers. the purpose is to point out areas of improvement, not influence someone's purchase.

[Cougarific]

Cool - be prepared for this thread to quickly devolve into a flame war as people argue about your opinions, and eventually get locked...which is why something like this belongs on the Reviews pages, and not Discussions.

Have fun.

[Einhander]

Thanks for the heads up, but I'm not worried. I provided the information I wanted to give. If people want to get uppity, well that's their problem not mine.

[Flin Fredstone]

Nice long read.
If i may, though my english is not as good as yours, a few counters.

Mining and resource collection.
The only downside is the transporter trailing another transporter who is collecting the last pieces of minerals just enough to fit into one hauler. For the rest the micromanagement is not a chore. If played well you will be mining out the entire system and will be there quite a while after you have investigated all points of exploration. Ample time to micromanage your fleet if that is what you wish to do. Not much else going on apart from a few buildings left and right.

Events, Accidents, and Strikes:

Ignoring the requests or failing the promises will result in a cascading number of accidents. Even if the stability is high and conditions are optimal. If you choose to ignore requests from the people you are supposed to lead or fail promises you made then of course the population will not "feel" good and bad things will happen.
Note that not everyone signed up for this mission, many were put into cryopods because things went sideways.

Population Control:

All your workers aren't singles selected for having no spouse and family. It isn't a society where everyone works. It would be nice, but not realistic. Perhaps there are many children. And since this is not Frostpunk you can't shove those into a coalmine. It's a mechanic that can easily be dealt with if you manage it properly.

Resources and Storage:
Pardon if i repeat myself, but once you understand the resource management it becomes rather simple. As meantioned earlier you can be in a system for quite while mining out everything. Oodles of time to sort out the resources in your ship and not rush everything.
Only in the later chapters will there be some form of pressure put upon you while you're in the system.

Buildings:
I get what you're saying. The problem i had in my first playthrough is that i did not know the footprint of new buildings before i unlocked them. And if you say that a firestation was big ... you just wait. Dimension wise some buildings are indeed out of proportion compared to other buildings. It's quite a puzzle to solve in your first run.

General Conflicts:
The only issue i have there in regards to populations mood is that it does not make sense when it comes from cryopods you thawed that house spacehip population. They should not have such a down mood, they should actually be more joyous that their pods were found and thawed. Not a penalty for sticking to a system to long or DES. But oh well, ample ways to deal with that.



Technology and Research:
I agree with you there. The research tree would be more logical if instead of rings it had all assets available at the start and different paths of research for each to improve that aspect. Make a choice what path you follow for a certain building, locking out the other path.