Planet Explorers is similar to My Time at Portia?

[elcano]

I really liked Planet Explorers. I wonder if My Time at Portia is similar being from the same developers. I know it's quieter like Stardew Valley but as far as I know My Time at Portia has a little action. Has anyone played thoroughly both and can you comment?

[dtt.scanner]

There are some very minor similarities:

Mining is voxel-based in special mining areas,

Dungeons are in special instances (enter/leave dungeon). Some dungeons reset (hazardous zone), while other (main story line) dungeons do not reset.

There is both fighting and crafting.

The rest is very different:

You are limited to one home plot (workshop) that you can expand and develop, and you do not design your own buildings... just purchase/place equipment around your purchased land. There is not a choice of locations, only in how to arrange your workshop.

The main story centers around completing city quests for needed items (crafting), but involves exploration and defeating boss dungeons to open up new areas/quests.

You must embrace and figure out the local economy in order to do well. Farming appears a little later in the game, and you can add the production of farm goods to the commissions (quests) that can be completed.

You can engage in developing friendships/romance/dating/marriage. The ones who are available for romance/marriage have a heart symbol in your notebook. The ones who are not available or already married have a star symbol. Developing relationships/friendships can gain you special gifts/discounts from each resident, so it tends to be a big part of the game for most people. Each person has their own personality likes/dislikes which must be determined in order to advance, but gaining the perks can greatly improve your success. (E.g. discounts on purchasing land expansions and building upgrades, increased commissions, etc.) Time is money in this game, so you have to balance social activity with work activity and exploration. Time moves very quickly, and there is not enough time to do everything every day.

The game is very complex, even though the look and feel of the game is very easy-going and pastel. I played in early alpha/beta development, and have not played through to the current end-game. I think (hope) that I helped a lot in the relationships development. Many things have been added, but for the most part the feel of the game remains the same. Saving progress is not possible during the day, if I recall, but is auto-saved with each new morning. You can go back and re-play an entire day, in order to handle the time better or get to an appointment that you may have missed, or to get a better commission if you get beaten to the commission board (you need to be there when it opens every work day)... but each day is a race and tedious to do over, so sometimes it is better to just take a minor loss and keep the progress that was made.

Personally, I think that Planet Explorers is a much more relaxed game. There is no pressure to complete any given thing in any specific order or time frame. My Time at Portia is a daily race to efficiently use your time and resources to accomplish as much as possible each day. (You are in competition with the AI workshops, and they start out much better than you.) Setting priorities and time and resource management makes My Time at Portia a very intense game... while at the same time you could play it free and easy, sacrificing the competitive rewards for a more relaxed version of the game. You may miss out on commissions, but certain things will only be given to you as story commissions. You may still find yourself struggling to get everything done in time each day. You definitely want to read the discussion threads if you want to do well... there are peripheral activities that can be very profitable, but again take time away from other activities. Some things like fishing and quarrying can be done after everything else closes, but other things, like romancing and mining, have to be balanced with your work schedule. Mounts and public transportation can help save time between distant resources.

Since the main Pathea web site is no longer available, I don't know what resources are current on the web. There is a fairly well-developed and updated wiki, I believe, but a lot of the strategy guides and discussion threads were lost when the Pathea site crashed. All of the information that I contributed regarding romancing, fishing, and quarrying are no longer available, but hopefully the wiki still has useful information. The romancing has changed significantly (updated) and so the wiki probably has better information on that subject anyway. It was very hard to keep track of, as it was constantly being changed/updated/improved.

EDIT: While you cannot save during the day, you can PAUSE the game to think about what you want to do next and plan how to do it efficiently. Going into your inventory/notebook, or (I think) looking in a storage chest, shop, or equipment UI will automatically pause the game until you exit. Looking in your notebook is a good way to figure out what you want to focus on next without losing time. While it takes time out of your day, pick a few people that you make a point to greet each day in order to improve their relationship. Multiple play-throughs will allow you to experiment with different choices, but you can also keep a save file if you want to go back to a save point before making an important decision, and start again from there (like declaring your intentions for someone).

[elcano]

Thank you for such a good answer. I'm surprised that the game is so stressful but I prefer it that way instead of easy.

[Boboscus]

Originally posted by elcano:

Thank you for such a good answer. I'm surprised that the game is so stressful but I prefer it that way instead of easy.

The game is much more similar to Stardew Valley than it is to Planet Explorers, it's made by the same people but it's 2 different styles. Down at it's core My Time at Portia is a time management game, while Planet Explorers is a survival game.

[UnwieldyRex]

Originally posted by Boboscus:

Originally posted by elcano:

Thank you for such a good answer. I'm surprised that the game is so stressful but I prefer it that way instead of easy.

The game is much more similar to Stardew Valley than it is to Planet Explorers, it's made by the same people but it's 2 different styles. Down at it's core My Time at Portia is a time management game, while Planet Explorers is a survival game.

This! ON SO MANY LEVELS! People often refer to SDV as the 2D version of My Time At Portia.

To the OP: this game honestly doesn't compare. I hate to say it, but SDV and MTAP are always going to be better, IMO. I understand that I just got this, maybe have a few hours of play, but it just doesn't feel right comparing this to those games. They're on different levels, whereas this is clunky and feels like resource gathering is poorly optimised (shoveling dirt for 5 minutes to get 4 sulphur is ridiculous, 1-2 resources per plant.). This game had potential and it just doesn't feel good to play. I want to like it, but I can't justify sinking any significant chunk of time into it. This is just my personal opinion, and I'm glad it was free.

ERMHAGHERD, this makes me want to fire up both SDV and MTAP again.

[dtt.scanner]

Originally posted by UnwieldyRex:

... feels like resource gathering is poorly optimised (shoveling dirt for 5 minutes to get 4 sulphur is ridiculous, 1-2 resources per plant.). This game had potential and it just doesn't feel good to play. I want to like it, but I can't justify sinking any significant chunk of time into it. This is just my personal opinion, and I'm glad it was free.

I would agree with you if this were true. I rarely have to mine for anything once the colony is running, and you pick up so much material just from developing a colony site (clearing/leveling a spot, etc.) that really there is little need for this. When you have the colony up and running (I think level 2) you build a processor and let the processor collect material for you. It will collect just about anything that you need except Titanium, which is a rare resource. You can also quickly collect common materials like sulfer (which is only found in grass voxels) by laying down a stack of grass voxels and mining down the stack. You get more resources than you use to make the stack, and if you size the stack to the size of your pick, gravity will move you down the stack so that you can mine the whole thing very quickly. In a couple minutes you can have several hundred sulfer, sulfates, and other trace elements, and literally thousands of limestone, marble, stone, and sand (for glass), and hundreds of iron and copper from just the trace elements in the limestone and marble. You can also send out a follower while you sleep, and rapid tap the "go to work" button, and when you wake up it is like Christmas with all of the free bubbles of supplies (depending on what their skill is in).

The point is that this is a very open-ended game, with more than one way to accomplish your goals.

[♀⛤WitchyWoman⛤♀]

This game is 100 times better then Portia, Portia has no aircraft and very limited crafting compared to this.