How long is this game?

[tukkek]

I would like to know how many hours people put into a playthrough before reaching their goal(s), starting over, etc? Also how flexible is the duration, as in: can it be speedrun in a couple hours and how long could you stretch it by playing on lowest speed for the longest?

I know there are no "correct answers" here, just looking for people's personal experiences and opinions. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks in advance!

[Frisko [VL]]

play the demo and find out?

[HottieWithAShottie]

If you're someone who likes to pick the largest map size and not stop till you fill in every last inch of space, a single city can easily keep you busy for dozens of hours. Since this is a city builder you're on the fastest game setting 80% on the time anyway unless you're planning a building/trying to solve an immediate problem. Unlocking all the rooms/buildings doesn't take too long after you get your city properly up and running but getting all the leader levels will still take some time since the levels are based on population numbers and the last one unlocks at 20k pop. I've never gotten far past 1200 to 1500 pop and still most cities last me a good 10-12 hours of gameplay time. I tend to get bored after I run out of concrete "progress" to make which happens shortly after I reach proper resource subsistence. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of early mid-game nevermind the potential of a proper late-game post-scarcity society with 10k pop.

[A boy named Sue]

Originally posted by tukkek:

I would like to know how many hours people put into a playthrough before reaching their goal(s), starting over, etc? Also how flexible is the duration, as in: can it be speedrun in a couple hours and how long could you stretch it by playing on lowest speed for the longest?

I know there are no "correct answers" here, just looking for people's personal experiences and opinions. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks in advance!

No "if your someone" or "play the demo".

This game is a slog. Work hard over a long period of time kind or game. You have to look up guides and wikis just to break even.

Speed run is a fun question. No it cannot be done in 2 hours.

My 2 cents? Aim for 2000 pop. If you reach it, you reached it. Anything beyond is just spreadsheeting.

[tukkek]

So how long is it to reach 2,000 population as of now? Let's say, on best-case and average?

[Orbital Føroysk 🪐]

Originally posted by A boy named Sue:

Originally posted by tukkek:

I would like to know how many hours people put into a playthrough before reaching their goal(s), starting over, etc? Also how flexible is the duration, as in: can it be speedrun in a couple hours and how long could you stretch it by playing on lowest speed for the longest?

I know there are no "correct answers" here, just looking for people's personal experiences and opinions. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks in advance!

Anything beyond is just spreadsheeting.

It really isn't.

[Blueberry Muffins!]

Originally posted by A boy named Sue:

You have to look up guides and wikis just to break even.

No, you don't. Not remotely. I've watched videos of late-game stuff to see if it looks like my kind of fun to aim at. It does. But I haven't needed to go outside the game for anything. I just figured out my first wholly-successful-so-far strategy and it feels damn good.

[ZirzoR]

Originally posted by Blueberry Muffins!:

Originally posted by A boy named Sue:

You have to look up guides and wikis just to break even.

No, you don't. Not remotely. I've watched videos of late-game stuff to see if it looks like my kind of fun to aim at. It does. But I haven't needed to go outside the game for anything. I just figured out my first wholly-successful-so-far strategy and it feels damn good.

Likewise, I got to 200 pop in my first 5 hours playing this game, with zero guides and wikis. (I even skipped the tutorial)

Had to figure some stuff out the hard way. (Like that mining density is a thing and something like 4% produces almost no ore at all)

Or that cutting down trees before making a woodcutter makes nothing grow on it. (Had to redo that one aswell)

Love this game so far, I can see why some people get addicted or have restartitis. (Getting the perfect starting spot and expanding feels awesome)

[an entire Roman legion]

my first city playthrough lasted ca 100hrs and I just started a new one. still super excited.

[Nightwalker]

This game is SUPER grindy and the dev keeps making the game even more of a grind. The demo is nothing like the real game.

Honestly, go play something else. I paid for this game based on the demo experience, and, as soon as I played long enough to start building tech, I found out about this decaying tech mechanic which no building can resolve.

So yes, skip this one.

[ZirzoR]

Originally posted by Nightwalker:

This game is SUPER grindy and the dev keeps making the game even more of a grind. The demo is nothing like the real game.

Honestly, go play something else. I paid for this game based on the demo experience, and, as soon as I played long enough to start building tech, I found out about this decaying tech mechanic which no building can resolve.

So yes, skip this one.

Tech does not decay, it is frozen, which is solved by libraries. (Because in the beginning, knowledge isn't kept anywhere)

You can only have X amount of tech at the same time, based on how big your laboratory is, I have a 20x20 lab and i can produce over 10k tech when upgraded, but it will never go over 10k unless I get a library, so once it hits it, it will seem like it "decays" but it will just hover around 10k, so if I wanted to allocate more then 10k in tech on upgrades and buildings, then I would have to get another lab or get a library. (Libraries boost labs output, so if you dont have any labs or small ones, its not worth it)

I got to 1k pop in less then 8 hours yesterday on a brand new game, I've never played the tutorial, nor have I ever looked at any wiki's or youtube stuff. (Without any titles)

So excuse me if I disagree.

[A boy named Sue]

@ZirzoR Tech does decay. It's one of the unique features of So6. You cannot tech up and re-assign your researchers to other jobs, like anyone would expect coming from most other colony sims. I think you understand that mechanic yourself, but your explanation is misleading.

Originally posted by tukkek:

So how long is it to reach 2,000 population as of now? Let's say, on best-case and average?

I don't remember exactly- sorry. Maybe 30-40 hours, the first time? For me. I may be kind to myself or exaggerating. It's hard to say. That's just me though and I am not a savant so take it with a grain of salt.

I can do 1000 in a dozen hours now but only because I've played it for 100+ hours. And if I take a starting settle area I am familiar with, and 5 settle bonuses.

[A boy named Sue]

Originally posted by tukkek:

So how long is it to reach 2,000 population as of now? Let's say, on best-case and average?

I just realized it might make more sense changing the unit of time from hours played to in-game years, I have saves for that. Again these are my numbers, not ZirzoR's. Take it with a grain of eggs.

D=Day Y=Year (S= for me to keep track off my save numbers, ignore it)

P=Population_Total, C=Cretorians, D=Dondorians, H=Humans, A=Army (you will want to be smarter than me on armies)

D1Y1 [S1]
P55, C55 D0 H0

D1Y4 [S5]
P135, C55 D21 H59

D3Y7 [S7]
P159, C55 D24 H80

D3Y7 [S8]
P300, C53 D113 H134 (I think I had been spending a lot of time stabilizing food because those 2 saves are hours apart)

D4Y40 [S38]
---Comment: big jump in pop - this is when I realized I knew enough about the game to push to 1000 pop. I also reset my save numbers.
---
P794, C75 D375 H341 (important for the jump in cretorians - this is when I realized I needed farms.)

D4Y40 [S9]
P838, C100 D404 H331

---Comment:There are some hours of real life time spent here, testing, letting the game run and micromanaging things that I now know did not need to be micro managed. Mostly was testing Library vs Laboratory ratios (IRRC)
---

D3Y52 [S12]
P1300 C165 D638 H546

---Comment:Again - there are some hours of real life time spent here, testing, letting the game run and micromanaging things that I now know did not need to be micro managed.
---

D3Y52 [S13]
P1800 C165 D638 H546 A413 (I had not prepared armies before this and I regretted it.)


D3Y52 [SSettup Cretos]
P1900 C176 D951 H850 A436

D4Y67 [SSettup Jewelry]
P2.1k C175 D1081 H931 A437

[tukkek]

So 300 played hours to get to 838 population (day 400, in-game)? (Just making sure I understand the format).

[tukkek]

Oh you're live-editing the comment :D let me rephrase that then: around 900 hours played in a single playthrough to get to 2,000 population?

[A boy named Sue]

Sorry yes I am live editing. Also your math is wrong - not 300 hours. I have not played that long. I thought my format was clear. So sorry if it was not.