So looking at this game

[Fizzbiscuts McGuffin]

But not sure if I'll buy yet. Can anyone kinda describe a bit about the game and tell me how hard it is or a video I can watch to understand more about the game? I'm mostly interested since I liked frostpunk and there seem to be some similarities in like moral choices and city building

[bateluer]

Its comparable to Surviving Mars, though in a different setting with more complex supply chains and a better overland map.

Check out Nivarias's Lets Plays on the game, he's pretty good. His Rebirth playthrough is ongoing currently, but he has other Playlists for the base games and the other DLCs.

youtube com/playlist?list=PLpA9BhZ94HTVBaQbZtQgIf5WfzQjUHknr

[Fizzbiscuts McGuffin]

Hmm I'll check those out but never played surviving Mars as it didn't appeal to me in how confusing it could be I'll definitely watch the videos though. Is the game hard or confusing in mechanics?

[Fizzbiscuts McGuffin]

Hmm ok so watching the videos this game seems way harder than like frostpunk with a lot more micro management. Is that true? Or are you able to start automating things later?

[jf3000]

Hey Fizz, if you want this game let me know, I will send you a key (Free)

[Fizzbiscuts McGuffin]

Originally posted by jf3000:

Hey Fizz, if you want this game let me know, I will send you a key (Free)

I'd appreciate it though I do ask why you'd be willing to do that for me. The game definitely seems interesting to try at least. I just worry it'll be harder than I expect. But I saw you can really work with the difficulty to make it easy or super hard in different areas which I really like

[bateluer]

Originally posted by Fizzbiscuts McGuffin:

I'd appreciate it though I do ask why you'd be willing to do that for me. The game definitely seems interesting to try at least. I just worry it'll be harder than I expect. But I saw you can really work with the difficulty to make it easy or super hard in different areas which I really like

I wouldn't its hard exactly, though there's definitely a learning curve to it. I can't really compare it to Frostpunk because I haven't played that one, but I do think its less forgiving than Surviving Mars. If you make a mistake in SM, a solid understanding of that game's mechanics will allow the player to recover from most errors. For Aftermath, its much less forgiving.

You can customize the game's difficulty by a good amount with regard to disasters, fertile ground, whatnot. I'd leave them on defaults as you learn the game a bit. When I first picked it up, I also found it helpful to disable the Shattered Hope and Rebirth DLCs too . . . with everything enabled, a lot gets thrown at you when you're still trying to figure out the basics of resource production and population management.

[Fizzbiscuts McGuffin]

Hmm good point probably a good idea not to use dlc at all to start. Then I can slowly add it in as I go. Frostpunk was nice since it was fairly simple in mechanics and the difficulty came more from choices and knowing you had a time limit until the big storm so you couldn't do everything you had to choose if it was more important to get more workers and put children at risk or not for example. Made the game hard but simple it's why I liked it. That and just the theme and morally grey choices that filled it

[bateluer]

Its a fine balance between the 'Easy to learn, hard to master.' I see positive things for Aftermath myself. Lot of potential.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by bateluer:

Originally posted by Fizzbiscuts McGuffin:

I'd appreciate it though I do ask why you'd be willing to do that for me. The game definitely seems interesting to try at least. I just worry it'll be harder than I expect. But I saw you can really work with the difficulty to make it easy or super hard in different areas which I really like

I wouldn't its hard exactly, though there's definitely a learning curve to it. I can't really compare it to Frostpunk because I haven't played that one, but I do think its less forgiving than Surviving Mars. If you make a mistake in SM, a solid understanding of that game's mechanics will allow the player to recover from most errors. For Aftermath, its much less forgiving.

You can customize the game's difficulty by a good amount with regard to disasters, fertile ground, whatnot. I'd leave them on defaults as you learn the game a bit. When I first picked it up, I also found it helpful to disable the Shattered Hope and Rebirth DLCs too . . . with everything enabled, a lot gets thrown at you when you're still trying to figure out the basics of resource production and population management.

It is actualy more like a mix between Frostpunk/Banished and EU4/CIV5? (The provinces and movement there.)
When i looked at the game at the store page i had quite a good feeling. But the game feels a huge disappointment. It is full of RNG restrictions. (And i don't own ANY of the DLC-s.)
Also it lacks a number of basic functions. Like enabling the grid. Or remembering the choices you picked when launching a game. Saving the town name/motto so you do not have to type it in each time. The research system is also not one i am fond of. Again it is pure random, what mission you get, beside the starting province which provinces have even a single node where you can research. What specialists you get. (I had 5 friggin fighters in one, i started with a fighter and a scavenger, and thereafter only fighters were coming or showing up as hireable.)

I dunno but i feel, when a game throws at you a nuclear storm at day 5, on day 6 sends to you near death colonists(survivors), then on day 7 sends bandits at you demanding food, and right after the nuclear storm ends on day 8, immideatly a large number of rats attack your colony....It is too much of randomness. And i only started on normal.

Not to mention many base building/planning is actually hindered by the resources, or the environmental restriction.(radiation/pollution fields.) Not to mention every 3 out of 4 maps, there is not even water nearby that i could build the free water clearing building. (And no well for free.) And even on normal sometimes all the water or so far away, from the starting point...it just makes pointless to even try.

Sometimes you cannot even build the friggin campsite on the edge of the map, because that is where the plaster/wood/food whatever must be placed by the RNG. And even if you remove the plaster, surprise, we have a huge other underground resource to extract, you need mid/end game tech to get.
The game had a lot of promise but how they implemented it...is not really well thought out. Even Banished did not have this much randomness.

Sadly because of the mentioned above i would only give the game a max of 62/100.

edit: fixed a few mistakes, and also just want to add, that there are quite a number of things that are not explained. Neither on the site nor in the game's help itself. Like the red boxes that appear beside buildings. what does it affect and why? Happiness because you built the buildings too close? Or building too close means infection is easier to spread?

[bateluer]

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

It is actualy more like a mix between Frostpunk/Banished and EU4/CIV5? (The provinces and movement there.)
When i looked at the game at the store page i had quite a good feeling. But the game feels a huge disappointment. It is full of RNG restrictions. (And i don't own ANY of the DLC-s.)
Also it lacks a number of basic functions. Like enabling the grid. Or remembering the choices you picked when launching a game. Saving the town name/motto so you do not have to type it in each time. The research system is also not one i am fond of. Again it is pure random, what mission you get, beside the starting province which provinces have even a single node where you can research. What specialists you get. (I had 5 friggin fighters in one, i started with a fighter and a scavenger, and thereafter only fighters were coming or showing up as hireable.)

I dunno but i feel, when a game throws at you a nuclear storm at day 5, on day 6 sends to you near death colonists(survivors), then on day 7 sends bandits at you demanding food, and right after the nuclear storm ends on day 8, immideatly a large number of rats attack your colony....It is too much of randomness. And i only started on normal.

Not to mention many base building/planning is actually hindered by the resources, or the environmental restriction.(radiation/pollution fields.) Not to mention every 3 out of 4 maps, there is not even water nearby that i could build the free water clearing building. (And no well for free.) And even on normal sometimes all the water or so far away, from the starting point...it just makes pointless to even try.

Sometimes you cannot even build the friggin campsite on the edge of the map, because that is where the plaster/wood/food whatever must be placed by the RNG. And even if you remove the plaster, surprise, we have a huge other underground resource to extract, you need mid/end game tech to get.
The game had a lot of promise but how they implemented it...is not really well thought out. Even Banished did not have this much randomness.

Sadly because of the mentioned above i would only give the game a max of 62/100.

edit: fixed a few mistakes, and also just want to add, that there are quite a number of things that are not explained. Neither on the site nor in the game's help itself. Like the red boxes that appear beside buildings. what does it affect and why? Happiness because you built the buildings too close? Or building too close means infection is easier to spread?

Some of this is accurate, some of it is overblown. I think I'd prefer a free well vs the free water collector at the start, but even if the water sources are further away from the gate, there's not really a distance limit to their function beyond not being able to build collectors too close to each other. Roads are free to build too.

I would like to see the initial settler be mobile, so I can build the initial settlement campsite in a more long term appropriate location vs a stone's throw from the gate as well.

Yes, the RNG effects on nearby scavenge locations, outposts, and specialist recruitment can be a little annoying. One of my first games went a little sideways because I couldn't find any research locations to advance the tech tree. Getting the outpost tech should be one of the first things you reach for, IMO, so you can start generating research points early. Turn those extra specialists into settlers and build some outposts.

Those subsurface resource nodes are a mixed bag. You know exactly where they're going to be for when you unlock the tech, but by then you've likely built up infrastructure around them. One definitely needs to think with an eye towards the long game. The late game production chains are very interconnected.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by bateluer:

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

It is actualy more like a mix between Frostpunk/Banished and EU4/CIV5? (The provinces and movement there.)
When i looked at the game at the store page i had quite a good feeling. But the game feels a huge disappointment. It is full of RNG restrictions. (And i don't own ANY of the DLC-s.)
Also it lacks a number of basic functions. Like enabling the grid. Or remembering the choices you picked when launching a game. Saving the town name/motto so you do not have to type it in each time. The research system is also not one i am fond of. Again it is pure random, what mission you get, beside the starting province which provinces have even a single node where you can research. What specialists you get. (I had 5 friggin fighters in one, i started with a fighter and a scavenger, and thereafter only fighters were coming or showing up as hireable.)

I dunno but i feel, when a game throws at you a nuclear storm at day 5, on day 6 sends to you near death colonists(survivors), then on day 7 sends bandits at you demanding food, and right after the nuclear storm ends on day 8, immideatly a large number of rats attack your colony....It is too much of randomness. And i only started on normal.

Not to mention many base building/planning is actually hindered by the resources, or the environmental restriction.(radiation/pollution fields.) Not to mention every 3 out of 4 maps, there is not even water nearby that i could build the free water clearing building. (And no well for free.) And even on normal sometimes all the water or so far away, from the starting point...it just makes pointless to even try.

Sometimes you cannot even build the friggin campsite on the edge of the map, because that is where the plaster/wood/food whatever must be placed by the RNG. And even if you remove the plaster, surprise, we have a huge other underground resource to extract, you need mid/end game tech to get.
The game had a lot of promise but how they implemented it...is not really well thought out. Even Banished did not have this much randomness.

Sadly because of the mentioned above i would only give the game a max of 62/100.

edit: fixed a few mistakes, and also just want to add, that there are quite a number of things that are not explained. Neither on the site nor in the game's help itself. Like the red boxes that appear beside buildings. what does it affect and why? Happiness because you built the buildings too close? Or building too close means infection is easier to spread?

Some of this is accurate, some of it is overblown. I think I'd prefer a free well vs the free water collector at the start, but even if the water sources are further away from the gate, there's not really a distance limit to their function beyond not being able to build collectors too close to each other. Roads are free to build too.

I would like to see the initial settler be mobile, so I can build the initial settlement campsite in a more long term appropriate location vs a stone's throw from the gate as well.

Yes, the RNG effects on nearby scavenge locations, outposts, and specialist recruitment can be a little annoying. One of my first games went a little sideways because I couldn't find any research locations to advance the tech tree. Getting the outpost tech should be one of the first things you reach for, IMO, so you can start generating research points early. Turn those extra specialists into settlers and build some outposts.

Those subsurface resource nodes are a mixed bag. You know exactly where they're going to be for when you unlock the tech, but by then you've likely built up infrastructure around them. One definitely needs to think with an eye towards the long game. The late game production chains are very interconnected.

I know about the outpost trick. Been using it, since i tend to not get that many research nodes nearby.
I actually upped the difficulty a bit, but was quite smooth sailing. The colonists are quite self regulatory. If you set up a stable system for a certain amount of colonist, the excess eventually will die out. The game does not really value life in this regard.

Also i was doing the Tomorrow Project now, it said i should build an engineer outpost somewhere, i did. But it did not advance from there. So i built 11 more:) Still nothing:P
So the game got stuck. (Yes it says to build an engineer outpost anywhere on a something biome. I built all 4 kinds...Three times:D)

edit:
Restarted and tried again on highest difficulty on all. To get most of the achievements as well i let the game last longer than it should, and actually to see if i can maintain a 500 + population. Basicly with 12 tailors and 5*2 delviery of protected gear...i could not keep up with the clothes:) Tools, i did not even bother to build them, but again superiro tools 5*2 was not enough. It seems the game is more friendly toward "smaller" colonies. Many of the crafting takes too much, so if possible it is easier to aquire them via trade. (I also ran into a game breaking bug, which meant i had to reload a save from 5 hours ago)
Finished with 508 pop, 50K+ silver, over 10K plastic and concrete, metal only 2000, food stuff over 11000. Energy prod over 1200, water i forgot to check but likely over 1400.