What exactly are you doing in this game, similar to They Are Billions?

[Sergeant Poultry]

I watched the trailer and I am still unsure as to what you do here. You build up a base and harvest resources. for what? Do you make soldiers to beat back the enemy or to invest in your tech research?

Is there a campaign to this game and is it varied with different types of missions, or is it only survival type games that you play?

[GeminiEclipse]

There's no fighting. It's a city builder with resource management. You just collect resources and spend them while dealing with the environment.

The goal is to reach a certain amount of points which you can get through various means. There's orders which are quests. Successfully completing them will get you a point.

There's reputation points which you can get by meeting the needs of your villagers which you produce through buildings.

There's event points that you get by cutting through the trees to glade areas that will have events to deal with.

All of this stuff takes resources which you find on the map and need different buildings or resources to access. So it's all just resource management.

[Corporation Inc Pty Ltd]

The objective is to fill a blue line (via reputation gains) before a red line fills (via impatience).

I disagree entirely on it being called a city builder - in my opinion it's a puzzle game masquerading as a city builder...

[Sergeant Poultry]

Originally posted by Corporation Inc Pty Ltd:

The objective is to fill a blue line (via reputation gains) before a red line fills (via impatience).

I disagree entirely on it being called a city builder - in my opinion it's a puzzle game masquerading as a city builder...

Is there a skill ceiling that rewards real depth and understanding of game mechanics? Or does a higher difficukty come from arbitrarily making things harder?

[mostly willing]

there is real depth. a lot of people sink hundreds of hours into the game, me included

Originally posted by Corporation Inc Pty Ltd:

I disagree entirely on it being called a city builder - in my opinion it's a puzzle game masquerading as a city builder...

agree. best and most distinct parts of AtS are completely unrelated to city building

it's a survival puzzle roguelike with resource management and some city building elements

[gzd]

Originally posted by Corporation Inc Pty Ltd:

The objective is to fill a blue line (via reputation gains) before a red line fills (via impatience).

I disagree entirely on it being called a city builder - in my opinion it's a puzzle game masquerading as a city builder...

I've said almost this exact same thing before. The only difference is that I wouldn't say it is exactly masquerading as a city builder, it is merely a puzzle game that happens to have a city builder theme.

I see so many disappointed reviews from people who expected Sim City or Rimworld or something of that sort because Steam has plastered meaningless tags all over every product. For example, I like Deep Rock Galactic and now the frickin Steam algorithm thinks I like ALL games tagged "dwarf." Gimme a break lol.

[{sBc} Bane5]

It is a puzzle roguelike game first and foremost as some posted above have said, but that's what gives this game a huge amount of replayability. In most city-builder games, you will figure out the "formula" in a dozen or so hours, then get bored. But this game will keep you on your toes for up to a few hundred hours.

[arjensmit79]

Originally posted by Sergeant Poultry:

Is there a skill ceiling that rewards real depth and understanding of game mechanics? Or does a higher difficukty come from arbitrarily making things harder?

The harder difficulty comes from taking away options that you had on easier difficulties, forcing you to find other ways. Now winning is not the hard part of the game. At takes about 200 hours of gameplay to reach the highest difficulty level, and anyone can win that consistently* without being a hardcore nerd who studies every intricate detail of the game.

The difference is that you can either accept winning in 6-7 years, or keep improving to end up winning constently in 4 years. Even after 1000 hours, i still felt i improved my game and learned new things. I assure you i play better (win faster on average) than i did when i had 500 hours in the game.

*although it must be noted that there are actually multiple controllable variables that control the difficulty level besides just "the difficulty level". And if you want, it surely is possible to make games that are really challenging to win. Few people seem to do that though. Most players like their near 100% winrates and avoids the true challenges.

[Entropy Judge]

Originally posted by arjensmit79:

Most players like their near 100% winrates and avoids the true challenges.

Or they're just getting something different out of the game that isn't reliant on increasing the challenge.

[Black Hammer]

It's a puzzle game, and it tricks people into thinking it's a city builder.

You don't design or plan or have a goal, you fill one bar before the other bar diminishes. Experimentation and exploration are punished; you look at your starting blueprints and pick a potential win condition.

That's a bit of an unfair description, because it sounds rather damning even though this is a good game. It's just only a good game if assembling an engine to generate the necessary victory points from your starting materials as efficiently as possible sounds like fun to you.

It's a bit like saying Factorio would be a huge disappointment to anyone wanting to explore an alien planet and discover things. No, it's a production optimization puzzle. That doesn't make Factorio a bad game.

[Soho]

I feel like I am building a city every time I play... but its not really a city, it is more like a temporary settlement-village for my caravan of explorers/prospectors/mercenaries

Very much like They Are Billions in that if you are pushing the difficulty level, you have a time-pressure to perform at a very optimal level (which is just a complex puzzle)

Just as with They Are Billions, you could just set it on the easiest difficulty and casual your way through hours and hours without any real threat of losing

[Expensive-Paper-77]

I play it like a city builder on the slower speed and the easier difficulties. No reason for me to try pushing higher. Like, why? I'm having quite a lot of fun just looking at the creatures running around their daily lives while listening to the cozy soundtrack and drinking tea.
You can enjoy the game in a variety of ways.