Could be a great game but...

[Alandrea]

So after frustrating myself for many hours I do not recommend this game in the current state. Colonist would rather sit and die protesting than run and fix the problem. We also need a blank map where you can sandbox right from the beginning being handed a half constructed colony placed in a geographical location to suit your demise is not optimal.
Give me a lander and let me go from there. This game could be very enjoyable,and I like almost everything about it. Sealed air systems that don't seal the air system are a problem. Is the atmosphere breathable or not? If so why would you let gas in from geothermal power plants? Sealed environments with decontamination units aren't doing there job. Make this have a true colony building capable simulation and it will be well worth it. Not saying there shouldn't be hardships, but don't negate the safety measures you put in place to just screw over the colony. Also battery usage should be either on or off it shouldn't toggle, what good is it if it shuts off. Why am I running out of power with a fully charged battery unit, is this not designed to run like a UPS? Also if your gonna start a colony in sandbox for us wouldn't you think to give us some water to start like a starter condenser or something. If this is the Earth's biggest and brightest then we are in for a lot of trouble. Thank you for your time

[Sticky Wicket]

Yep. Missed opportunities all round with Aven Colony, making for a very disappointing experience. Becomes contrived and repettitive very quickly.

Certainly not worth the full asking price for something so over-simplistic and sadly lacking essential features.

It could have been a great game.

[Palandus]

Yes, colonists are worse than useless when starving, infected with plague, or protesting; they do not work, they lower morale, and they still take up work slots, so production drops drastically.

Technically, you can recycle all of the starter buildings. Though I do agree, being able to pick any spot on the map, and land there would be much more ideal.

Yeah, the lack of sealed air systems, irks me. The game tells you from the very beginning of the game, that the colony is hermetically sealed... which means nothing gets in and nothing gets out. The international space station [ISS] is hermetically sealed, and if it wasn't, air, water, and people would get sucked out and into space. So... if the colony is hermetically sealed, then why would it allow plague spores, toxic gas, and non-breathable air into the colony (ie the Air Fans that supposedly improve air quality, that suck in non-breathable air, to make air more breathable... WTF?).

Also, if the colony were to allow toxins into the colony, there is the concept of airlocks. The ISS, has airlocks, so that it can seal off portions of the station in case a breach does occur. It also allows them to go outside and space walk. And yet, you can't build airlocks in this game, wherein they would be extremely useful in containing biological/chemical threats to the colony.

Batteries are managed either by clicking on them, or going into policies. But again a lot of this isn't very intuitive.

There are a ton of other missed opportunities here too. Some examples:
- Being unable to turn the power off of a structure, unless you have a charged battery and consumes charge to do it and the turned off power is only temporary.
- Why you can lose your elected seat at 49% morale, but you have no real "incentive" to keep morale higher than 50%, other than to have a bit more leeway to avoid losing from morale.
- Why you can't select all the structures of a type and set their employment level. Would make it a lot less tedious to end employment of your 14 farms before winter, and then restart employment after winter.
- Expedition reward points. You need 10 to upgrade your Expedition Center, but after that, they are totally unnecessary.
- Most of the disasters. Worms are basically a non-threat, once you build a single plasma turret. Lightning storms are a non-threat, once you have a couple lightning rods. Gunships/Warbots, can be taken out by 2-3 plasma turrets and don't do that much damage anyway.
- Potash. Why is it you can't produce potash, by combining two common resources on earth: fertilizer and compost.

And the list goes on. If there was modding support people could fix a lot of this stuff, but alas, it isn't going to happen.

[bongerman85]

it would be nice if modders could gain access to the game tools, but the devs still have them completely protected, i played pretty far into the story, and in my non campaign colony. not only got everyone happy also started sending ships out and doing additional colonies and stuff too. the one thing i really wish we could alter is the shield artifact, to be able to shield the whole colony. as it stands now you have to be very deliberate about where you play the containment buildings for them, to maximize protection.

[mystikmind2005]

Originally posted by bongerman85:

it would be nice if modders could gain access to the game tools, but the devs still have them completely protected, i played pretty far into the story, and in my non campaign colony. not only got everyone happy also started sending ships out and doing additional colonies and stuff too. the one thing i really wish we could alter is the shield artifact, to be able to shield the whole colony. as it stands now you have to be very deliberate about where you play the containment buildings for them, to maximize protection.

Oh, you thought that an artefact effect was supposed to be useful did you? Hahahaha

Yeah it is a great game, but there are a few illogical things that really didn't need to be that way in order to make the game work, which is a real shame.... i can usually tolerate some illogical things in games if i can see and understand that it is needed, but nothing illogical in this game can be justified that way at all....

because it would have only needed to very slightly different to get the same strategic elements without being illogical THAT IS THE PROBLEM.

For example, the gas clouds could corrode and damage structures instead.

Colonists with bad morale will go on strike for periods of time and the frequency and length of strikes increases over time if the morale is not improved. Some buildings will be shut down during strikes but not all, but over time more buildings will be shut down for longer if morale is not improved.
The above makes allot more sense right?

And building shutdowns during power shortages - gee, being the colony leader, i might like to have some say in which buildings are shut down, and that they remain F-ing shut down until i say otherwise.... you know, me being colony leader and all!!!

Also, being colony leader, i might like to clear all the useless trades from the trade list so i have more space to create custom trades, but, apparently i have to keep looking at that long list of useless trades instead and not be able to trade for more of the things that are actually useful.

All but 2 of the Alien crops are hamstrung by needing flour.... really? is that really necessary?? I have to look at interesting Alien crops that are basically useless?

[Will]

I rather enjoyed the game (unfortunately just got stuck in the penultimate mission and I'll probably just give up on finishing the campaign). But yeah, the air mechanics are very weird. Also the commute system feels kinda buggy. I've had greenhouses where the citizens were complaining about not reaching, but were fully connected to the colony.

And it's very easy to loose power in the winter and all hell breaking loose because you can't just turn off non-essential buildings. Not very high-tech for a space colony <o'

[Lendorien]

I enjoyed the game until I got to the point of starvation in one mission. The fact that all the colonists stopped working and just starved to death ruined the game for me. In real life, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ morale wouldn't make people just stop trying to save themselves from starvation. But once you run out of food, every colonist stops working entirely and they all starve to death. Even if you shut down everything int he colony but air power and food. It doesn't matter.

The worst part is, if they had done it right and made starvation something you could come back from, this game would be a lot more fun. But one false move and boom, you're in a death spiral. Completely ruined the game for me.

[Sticky Wicket]

Originally posted by Lendorien:

I enjoyed the game until I got to the point of starvation in one mission. The fact that all the colonists stopped working and just starved to death ruined the game for me. In real life, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ morale wouldn't make people just stop trying to save themselves from starvation. But once you run out of food, every colonist stops working entirely and they all starve to death. Even if you shut down everything int he colony but air power and food. It doesn't matter.

The worst part is, if they had done it right and made starvation something you could come back from, this game would be a lot more fun. But one false move and boom, you're in a death spiral. Completely ruined the game for me.

Clumsy and thoughtless development spoilt this game.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Lendorien:

But once you run out of food, every colonist stops working entirely and they all starve to death. Even if you shut down everything int he colony but air power and food. It doesn't matter.

Yeah I found it pretty silly that the whole colony goes on strike due to starvation and then they will literally all starve to death rather than work on the farms.

[Cypher]

Not a bad game for the price (picked it up for £6!) but what i'm reading above will likely irk me in time.
thing i don't get, is that there are games like Surviving Mars that predate this one and they have all (Most?) of the features this game is missing or has just got plain wrong... (it has airlocks for colonists to go outside, they even don space suits to do it!) i'd say the only thing this game does better is that it's not all brown desert like Mars.

Also, why doesn't "surveillance view" actually follow people?

[WingedKagouti]

Originally posted by Cypher:

Not a bad game for the price (picked it up for £6!) but what i'm reading above will likely irk me in time.

I got this game as the EGS freebie a week or two ago, completed the campaign and I'd say that if I don't feel like the game is worth 5€. There are just too many small (and some not so small) flaws like the ones mentioned in the thread.

The structure of the game is just very repetetive and there are few options for variation in or optimization of build order that aren't tied to specific restrictions in a mission or map.