What the actual ♥♥♥♥...!!!

[Death Stalker]

WTF..?!?!?!?

I've done 5 run-thru's of the game and all I can say is "What The Actual ♥♥♥♥" were you thinking and who the hell did you hire to design it...!?!?!?
Everyone died within less than 12 months on the planet on all 5 run-thru's, from either starvation, (when food was available), running from aggressive bugs, (while armed with a laser pistol/rifle or plasma rifle), or my favorite, Boredom...!!!
Every one of my run-thru’s were on Easy because anything above that is too messed up to attempt.
Then what were you thinking when you added a Vegetarian?
She was so committed to not eating meat that she dies of starvation in the winter.
Having been hungry and eaten stuff that would make a strong man gag, I guarantee you that absolutely no one would be that committed to being a vegetarian once extreme hunger pains set in, (think Donner Party).

Thanks to 24 years in the US Army spent working in Special Operations, I apparently know more about survival than your whole team of game developers combined, (which is painfully obvious from how this game was designed and coded.
Oh, by the way yes, I am US Army SERE and Survival Instructor qualified. I could also add US Air-force survival school qualified but that was a cake walk for me in comparison to the Army training I went thru.

Lets talk about research.
Every team I got was too stupid to do the right research when I presented it to them on the Research table so it never got done in time to save them. I even prioritized all actions and they still wouldn't do it.
I then cancelled everything else and guess what? They sat on their buts and ate all the food.

Let’s now address the level 5 thru 7 combat vets that cant even shoot a bug with a laser or plasma rife, or any NPC running right up to an unknown species, (without me telling them to observe it or anything), until they get attacked. Again, WTF?

I have them forage for food and they still eat the ships rations first. No stopping them even with restricting them not to do so, (which also doesn't work).

They also do whatever the hell they want even when I task them or draft them specifically to do something else.

Then I actually had a NPC bleed out from 90% to 0% while I had the game on pause so that I could assign/draft someone to help her. I guess Pause doesn't mean anything in some situations.

Here are some tips in-case you decide to rewrite this game or, (My Recommendation), trash it and start over from scratch.
The first thing to do in a survival situation is to sit down, calm everyone the ♥♥♥♥ down. and then take stock of everything you have, while reassuring the namby-pamby ones that everything will be ok, (lets call that Bedside Manner).
The next thing to do in a survival situation is assess where you are and then make sure where you are is safe and if it isn't, move out smartly until you are safe.
The next thing to do, (if you don't already know), is to sit down and evaluate what everyone's strengths and weaknesses are in association to surviving.
The next thing to do is decide how long you will likely be in that survival situation and pick the best site to set up camp and then decide what your priorities of work are based on that evaluation and then clearly delineate who does what until everyone understands.
If you have problem children then set them straight on where they are and what they will need to do in order to survive.
After that, all orders of work will depend on what you want to achieve and how long you plan on being there.

I can understand some people not being capable of doing certain things because I'm 64 years old but I can still shoot the nuts off a fly at 100 yards, Build a house by myself, plant and maintain a garden, and still pick up a 200 lb man and carry him a couple hundred yards if needed.

I guess based on your game standards that makes me over level 200 in pretty much every category except maybe longevity but that would still be over level 190 by your game standards, LOL

If I were actually on any of your choices of teams here I guarantee everyone would survive on probably the worst planet you have in this game.
It’s funny how my actual extensive knowledge of real world survival-ability does not even come close to translating when I apply it into your game.
It’s like this game was written by idiots for idiots and as such, un-winnable.

Since I paid for the game and gave it my best 6 tries, (well exceeding Steams 2 hour window on returning the game), before writing this post, I guess I'll try a few more times to see if I can make it work relatively well with the mindset that the Developers don't know ♥♥♥♥ about real survival and their supposed skill aren't real at all.
Wish me luck because unless I can think like a total amateur survivalist, I'm probably just going to get disappointed again and again. Maybe I'll just quickly build a tiny absolutely impenetrable compound and only leave it to get enough stuff to survive one day at a time.
Naw, that wont work either because then everyone with me will suddenly become Vegetarians, eat all the vegy's and then die of starvation even though we have built that compound with electricity and have a fully stocked refrigerator with tons of meat in it etc.

I understand wanting to make things interesting by creating a game that is hard to win but some basic form of realism would be nice. Again, WTF...?!?!?!?

Maybe your team should stick to Call Of Duty type games. Then again, you would probably mess that up as well...!!!

[Death Stalker]

Originally posted by jojobe:

This was a GREAT READ! MY advice is to use mods. Their is mod that will remove the trash from these colonist and fix it so they are not totally useless. Pick your own survivors. I start off with WILL SMITH in my party, if you dont play nice he can do some smack down! Then I play with X and LEN and couple other super survivors on the workshop. I use the start with 10 people mod as well. You get 10 good pics that know what they are doing. I also use the stock pile mods because as you know thats a nightmare along with a clothing mod so clothing last longer than 1 season. just 4 mods and your good! List of character on the workshop i like. Dr. Howard NEvile, Familia de Colonos (OP), LEN, X, Evelynn, Anias,

Id like to use mods but I'm not familiar with them enough to make them work. I wouldn't even know where to start or what mod kit to get but thanks, I'll try that in the future.

[Death Stalker]

OK, my first post was 1.) directed at the developers and 2), long winded because as a survival instructor, I expected to get a game that would challenge my knowledge and instead, this one just frustrated the hell out of me.

This game is obviously not going to challenge me in that respect!

I have been listening to all of your comments, even the sarcastic ones from nerds who couldn't start a fire with a gallon of gasoline and a blow torch, and those still living in their moms basement, ("You Know Who You Are", LOL), and I have accepted that the game is what it is and the only way to play it and have fun is to unlearn or just forget what I know about survival and just concentrate on how the game mechanics work and play it accordingly.

On that note, does anyone know of a survival game on Steam that actually is a Realistic Survival Game and not just some stuff that a bunch of coders put together to make a buck...???

[Zep Tepi]

As I said before, all survival games are basically a matter of figuring out the game mechanics and going from there. Real survival has too many variables, and shortcuts are used because no one wants to spend the time it would take to do all that stuff in real time. They are all "gamified."

With that in mind, you can try Green Hell, the Forest, or Sons of the Forest. For a colony game there's Rimworld, which this game has copied a lot from and despite the cartoony graphics is more complex than this game. If you don't mind cartoony graphics there's also Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together, which are pretty challenging but very quirky. Valheim is another fun one. Everyone used to talk about The Long Dark but I never really got into it.

[Grumpess]

This post is legitimately the best thing I've read all day. Did the US army teach you how to survive on a fictional alien planet? Use that spongy thing in between your ears the game isn't that hard at all

[Agent707]

Originally posted by Death Stalker:

OK, my first post was 1.) directed at the developers and 2), long winded because as a survival instructor, I expected to get a game that would challenge my knowledge and instead, this one just frustrated the hell out of me.

Real world survival instructor knowledge has zero to do with "how to play a video game" knowledge. Stop trying to lump them together. You're only making it look worse.

Try using advanced priorities, instead of just the checkboxes... sounds a lot like you don't have things prioritized correctly.

If your guys are running around naked on easy mode because they "won't make clothes", this is an issue with you. Nothing wrong with the game. You set someone on tailoring to 1, they will do nothing but tailor. period. As long as you have the jobs setup and have mats.

[Elfaron Tindomiel]

if you wanna give something else a try. i would recommend "7d2d" or "stranded deep".

[jinix90]

Well this is an interesting point of view(views), the op would be best to realize that this is 'woke' survival-ism and catering to the less able's routine is what's expected nowadays.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Grumpess:

This post is legitimately the best thing I've read all day. Did the US army teach you how to survive on a fictional alien planet? Use that spongy thing in between your ears the game isn't that hard at all

LOL, that was my thought after reading the OP.

So proud of his 'survival training' yet clearly didn't have any officer training. Because this game isn't about applying real world survival practices, it's about management.

[Hellzcatz]

"Thanks to 24 years in the US Army spent working in Special Operations, I apparently know more about survival than your whole team of game developers combined, (which is painfully obvious from how this game was designed and coded.
Oh, by the way yes, I am US Army SERE and Survival Instructor qualified. I could also add US Air-force survival school qualified but that was a cake walk for me in comparison to the Army training I went thru."

I´m can´t stop laughing after reading this after you telling that you tried 5 times and haven´t past 12 months. :)

[Hellzcatz]

Originally posted by Death Stalker:

OK, my first post was 1.) directed at the developers and 2), long winded because as a survival instructor, I expected to get a game that would challenge my knowledge and instead, this one just frustrated the hell out of me.

This game is obviously not going to challenge me in that respect!

I have been listening to all of your comments, even the sarcastic ones from nerds who couldn't start a fire with a gallon of gasoline and a blow torch, and those still living in their moms basement, ("You Know Who You Are", LOL), and I have accepted that the game is what it is and the only way to play it and have fun is to unlearn or just forget what I know about survival and just concentrate on how the game mechanics work and play it accordingly.

On that note, does anyone know of a survival game on Steam that actually is a Realistic Survival Game and not just some stuff that a bunch of coders put together to make a buck...???

Try the one in the jungle.

[Hellzcatz]

By the way, I don´t think you will find the right experience on games. Usually people have to get much more food and water than is need for survive (I went hunting and stay without water/food for days, for a few times, and I came back smiling) - and the media does not help on that.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Death Stalker:

On that note, does anyone know of a survival game on Steam that actually is a Realistic Survival Game and not just some stuff that a bunch of coders put together to make a buck...???

You'd probably like Green Hell. I play a lot of survival games and it is probably the closest to realistic of all the ones I have ever played. My formal training is limited to what you learn in boy scouts though, so I don't have as critical of an eye as you would.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/815370/Green_Hell/

Other honorable mentions based on things I have read (haven't gotten around to playing any of these yet though):
https://store.steampowered.com/app/305620/The_Long_Dark/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1326470/Sons_Of_The_Forest/

[Flin Fredstone]

I doubt any survival game is realistic. There are always some things to pick from them that don't match reality.
That is why it are games.
It's what you sign up for when you play a game, to not be real. If you want reality, book a trip to a remote jungle or desert and have at it for a month.