Any good terraforming-themed city-builder/factory games out there? I'm only aware of - Surviving Mars (yawn) - Per Aspera (shittiest pathfinding known to man) - Infraspace (fine, bit ugly) - Plan B: Terraform (least bad option) - Terraforming Mars (port of a board game) Am I missing anything?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3509420/Planetbase_2/it's probably going to be ass, but planetbase 2 will be coming out some time in the next few years
Captain of Industry?
>>2133238I've been hunting for years, can't find any. A game called Antimatter is in development that allows terraforming, but isn't the main focus of the game. But it looks like you might be able to get somewhat autistic with it.
>>2133238>Am I missing anything?Class, style, brain, gf, job...
>>2133238>Per Aspera (shittiest pathfinding known to manextremely unfortunate case. game has great production values and a plot that could be good, if all the story triggers weren't messed up and confusing, and fun mechanics, if they also weren't messed up and confusing. i remember i had an objective to make a certain percentage of the mars surface be covered in water, one of the ways to do it was to draw an ice comet to crash on mars, i was like "oh, this looks fun", then a little while later the martian surface became that percentage of water anyway, without any significant input from me.and of course at one time the broken pathfinding for the drones ended my run.
>>2133238Terraformers is vaguely city-builder-ish, I guess?
>>2133238I liked Plan B but it felt too rigid in terms of progression. Baby's first Factorio, in a way.
>>2133238
>>2133475I like this game but the timed challenges are really not fun and kills my enjoyment.
>>2133238>Per Aspera (shittiest pathfinding known to man) I haven't played in a while, but I remember the worker drones in that game operate like a "bucket chain" system, where they only move things between their neighbours unless there is a severe lack of workers. If you build a worker hub next to everything that needs them, it works fine, but it's unintuitive until you figure that out.Terraformers was my GOTY when it came out. Not really a city builder/factory game, but I haven't played anything better with a terraforming theme. The game mechanics are flawless.
>>2133238Surviving Mars was okay tropico in space. It wasn't a bad game until PDX whored it out to some nonames to make shit DLC. Funnily it looks like the begged the original developer to return and they are reworking those 2 for the released. Greedy jews still want full price for it though or $30 if you own the original.Per Aspera was meh. I remember building new bases was annoying as fuck because you couldn't send additional resources with the colony pod so you had to progress from scratch until you could build a receiving trade structure on that end. Also the plot was actually pretty dumb.Plan B is pretty cool but last time I played it it felt like lacking some qol features and the thing were it was pointless to half fulfil the need until you were ready to go break into the next tier was stupid. The city wouldn't contract below the breakpoint and stopped consuming old resources to delivering anything until you were ready just wasted resources because there was no happiness or taxes.
>>2133238Terra Nil is pretty chill
>>2133238That reminds me, campaign in Settlers IV is about terraforming - stopping the spread of corrupted grounds, spread by a evil mage, who looks like Gargamel
>>2136390>Per Aspera>Indian girl becomes president of marsRuined whatever the game could have been by turning Mars into a designated shitting planet.
>>2136638>futuristic high tech high skill project>it's full of womenevery fucking timetired of it, dogshit
>>2136638anon where did you think the nitrates would come from?
Factorio with Nullius mod (not for 2.0 yet)
>>2133238You may be interested by thishttps://store.steampowered.com/app/1593030/Terra_Nil/This technically fit the description, but I found the demo shittyhttps://store.steampowered.com/app/1284190/The_Planet_Crafter/
Part of me want a terraforming game.The other part of me know that none of these game, save the smaller-scale ecosystem ones, are anywhere credible in their terraforming gameplay.It's not just "we don't have the technology yet"It's the math on the link below.https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/mars-terraforming-not-possible-using-present-day-technology/You can't terraform (Mars) with just local resources, you'd only reach 4% of the atmosphere you'd need millions of lasers melting Mars to extract just what's in the soil than billions of spaceships bringing missing atmosphere...It would be easier to build billions of O'neill space colonies.I would gladly take a City Skyline game about building a O'neill space colony. but only if it's not dumb casual crap and they learned you can build vertically up to the center of the colony. I can totally imagine them go super lazy and just port current City Skyline on a curved map
>>2133257I like this one. I can spend hours just digging stuff and dumping it somewhere.It makes me feel like when i was little playing with Tonka trucks in the backyard
>>2139361>City Skyline game about building a O'neill space colonyIxion is something like this but takes the lazy curved map approach
>>2139800I played it.I was expecting better, more mission, more variety, but in truth the only thing that really bothered me is the unbalanced material loss from opening new sector. It completely discourages you from doing so, despite it being of critical importance to specialize sectors.And if you deactivate the difficulty option, then it's unbalanced in the other direction.There's also how events are often complete RNG and can fuck you up with no side benefit (even later after accepting the loss, like that sphere).
>>2133253They should have gone straight for dawn of man 2 but yeah maybe that would have been a lil bit too cheesy and too soon
The Planet Crafter is a terraforming factory game but its first person. but the basic premise is building enough machines to change the atmosphere of a mars like planet to make it habitable.
>>2139800is there a mod yet that lets you play this freeform
>>2139361https://www.science.org/content/article/terraforming-mars-could-be-easier-scientists-thoughtWho do I believe anon? Who?
>>2139800Ixion isn't even a city builder, it's a puzzle game with a story chained to its ankle.
>>2147007>Who do I believe anon? Who?The ones who don't need a clickbait title and aren't evasive about the true feasibility/practicality of such a project.Mars is lacking quadrillions tons of atmosphere and it's not hidden in the soil.You "can" terraform anything, but by the time you get the technology and the economy to do even the closest one, it would likely be a pointless endeavor because anyone would have luxuries that far surpass Mars 0.3 Gravity.
so I tried plan b now its in 1.0 and it feels a bit short? gotten to the part where they blow up the space elevator and I can't imagine theres much more of the game to go
>>2153381The final "you r winner" screen is at million pops and there's still a few resources with final city needs at 300k so you will need to produce at least some of it. It's not groundbreaking and I would say it overstays it's welcome a bit.Build shields, earth will actually try to nuke you
>>2153409The dev said he's working on some expansion. The game gets easier the further you get unless you set up your production chains wrong. Maybe there could also be some missions to build some amenities for your cities instead of just resources. Or maybe there could be a need for your people to move between cities.
Thoughts on this switch game? It's ~$9 on steam and it has a biome creation gimmick i haven't seen much off.
I wonder if the reboot of Terraforming Mara will be better?
>>2133257Not after they RUINED their UI
>>2136437it's also a puzzle game with zero city building
>>2157279It's a puzzle game. It's good if that's your thing.I WANT A SUCCESSOR TO SIMPARK THOEVER
>>2156505I wouldn't say the game was hard at any point but producing enough nitrogen, carbon or water and the was annoying even though it wasn't much of a challenge. Buildings don't produce much, you need a lot and at least in case of nitrogen probably have to carry it a long distance but you don't have many options anyway (maybe you can cover partway with boats, but I mostly used those because they were fun than because I thought they were a more efficient choice) so more drills and more trains to keep up with the throughput it is. Same with building a million farms in the endgame.There's no enemies, obstacles and you can instantly build (and remove with full refund) anywhere so hooking up another iron patch or moving your greenhouse gas setup because fluoride ran out again feels like busywork. It's less of an issue at first, but once you scale up they run out pretty quickly so I was a bit tired of it by the time of final push for million pop.It's still a cute game, but it's not super deep.
>>2147007Mars will never have enough gravity to be habitable by man. At best, we can throw some lichens and soil down there and then come back in a few centuries to harvest our space tomatoes.
>>2166153>Mars will neverGarbage post100 years ago people would have said that we'd never masturbate to 2d drawings generated by mathematics off of glowing hand held metal machines receiving the image from spaceYet here we are
>>2166190>astronaunts regularly spend more than that on the ISS>kidneys are fine???
>>2166209>astronaunts regularly spend more than that in a florida studio>nasa says kidneys are fine
>>2165951It'll be hot garbage until proven otherwise. Haemimont doesn't deserve the benefit of doubt.
>>2166286>Haemimont doesn't deserve the benefit of doubtwhy not?
>>2166190>okay, please tell me howAsk me in a hundred years nigger
>>2166190Modifying humans would be easier than changing the mass, but we are a bunch of moralfags so it's simply not happening.
>>2166777>but we are a bunch of moralfagslollmaoImagine being this delusional
>>2133238>Surviving Mars (yawn)But why? Very comfy game.
>>2166777>Modifying humans would be easier than changing the massrealistically this would be the only option if you actually wanted to permanently put sentient organic beings on the surface.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuEmD9WRKes
>>2166512bitch have you played the original, shit's completely fucked and they're selling the patches to fix the bugs as a NEW FUCKING GAME
>>2168330The game was fine until paracucks let some nobodies do the last DLCs. Those were broken and reintroduced old bugs and were not made by Haemimont. Clearly they got some deal to come back to fix it and that's how they framed it to get a clean slate instead of changing DLC with crap reviews that probably nobody will notice got reworked (and also if it's okay to substantially changing something people already paid for might also be a factor, even if it's for the better).The rerelease also includes some new stuff that probably would have been like $15 DLC by itself anyway and if you own the base game it's $20 (instead of $40) so while you could say it's a shit deal I wouldn't say it's completely unreasonable.
>>2168330That was literally not Haemimont though. They left after Green Planet because they considered the game done.Then Paradox wanted more money so they hired Abstraction who bungled their two DLCs so badly that they simply got fired because nobody had any faith that they could fix them.
>>2133238>terraforming-themed city-builder/factory gamesThis is a niche genre near and dear to me, but I'm so so irredeemably fucking stupid that the only game I've managed to play and complete on this list is Per Aspera.
The only game with "terraforming" that really scratches the itch for me is Spore, funnily enough. And only in short doses since the whole system is so barebones and basic.
>>2133238aspera is shitty?
>>2133238>>2139324>>2146879Bumping the thread because I tried the demo to planet crafter and something just clicked in my brain. I bought the full game + dlc the other night and I already have 8 hours in it. Not OP, it isn't entirely what I was looking for, but it's still very satisfying to build sci-fi shit and see the gradual changes my influences has on the planet.It's also very gratifying building and sending a rocket into orbit from scratch. >>2177117>aspera is shitty?The campaign is annoying and shitty, the free play "just let me terraform the planet" is pretty good though. I've been told the game was a fucking mess on launch; I bought it 2 expansions later, for less than 20 bucks, and Steam says I've put 180 hours into it. It's simple and enjoyable. The ocean and animal updates really added a lot more to do.
>>2177117Like the other anon I hated the story. It didn't even let me play the full game. I want to try the freeplay mode someday but the story soured me on the game so much it killed most of my motivation.
>>2178445>planet crafterAs I remember the demo, it was extremely grindy, didn't let me see impressions of change over the planet.The area seemed very small. I certainly didn't get the feeling of awe of the videos.I'm probably also not immersed by terraforming being done by 1-10 players. I need to see giant environment.Knowing you need DLC also don't help, and I bought Rimworld DLC.
>>2179240>>2178445Planet Crafter makes for a great "calming" game, especially in later stages when you get more self sufficient, grow your food, have water sources and lose o2 slower.
>>2185074I guess, but when I reach that point, will I even want to keep playing?
>>2136638It's realistic. India will be the first country to step foot on Mars, mark my words.
>>2186055That's because Africa, India, and China will be the only countries left.
>>2133401I liked my time with Terraformers, but since it is very board gamey and abstracted I could get it not being everyone's cup of tea.
Just bought Terra NilIt's not bad but I hoped for better than a puzzle game where nothing change unless you spend the ingame resources.Like,>set up a system to cool the atmosphere>-5°C>the structure is now on the terrain>Later you get option to move it.>move it>-10°C>number of structure didn't change>energy produced didn't changeAnd then>now you would love to increase emperature again>can you, like, deactivate your useless machine needing constant power?>nope>you need to build/move in loop a structure that increase heat right next to the cooling oneStill a fun puzzle, but IMO any game that simulate anything should defacto be real-time
>>2185652To fully terraform the planet, to discover the secrets, to make it even better, duh.dont forget that planet gets breathable before the last stages of terraforming process are achieved.
>>2133257bad update system
Timberborn is interesting. Are there other games with water mechanics like it? Not necessarily grided
I always really wanted a Command and Conquer Tiberium terraforming game. Something like you play as the Scrin and its your job to fully crystallize a planet or something.Now I KNOW nothing like that exists and the closest you could ever get is dead mods. Feels bad man.
paradox is relaunching this thing in order to milk its paypiggies with two new DLCs in 2026honestly it was a pretty good game and i'm surprised they just abandoned it like they did
>>2203108The game has its moment and original developers have already moved to another project but PDX woke up one day and decided to contract some absolute nobodies to make new DLC to squeeze some cash out of it. The DLCs were absolute shit, poorly designed and poorly made while also reintroducing bugs in the base game that have long been fixed probably because they didn't start with the up to date version. PDX has recently brought out Haemimont Games and I guess they had them go back to their old game and fix the shit DLCs someone else did, this is why they are marketing it as a separate thing, to wipe the slate clean.
>>2133475>>2133554I feel that the time limits are important here, otherwise you'd just sit there and wait for the terraforms to come until you could flatten all of Mars. But if you really don't want them, just play sandbox mode.I'm generally not into colony sims but I'm enjoying the game quite a lot.
>>2203161okay, that's good news. haemimont's last few games have been solid. hopefully being acquired by paradox did not affect them.
Terraformers is really cheap on Fanatical right now: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-indie-legends-bundleIf you only want to get one more game alongside it, I recommend Jupiter Hell.
why hello there
>>2206734i should probably buy thisbut>5 year early access
>>2207281Didn't they announce 1.0 releasing soon(tm)?
>>2207281>>2207303Yeah, I think next update is supposed to be the final release version now.
>>2206734I have zero interest in this game.
>>2207281the game has been always enjoyable to play, early access or not>>2208565your loss, it's a good game with an interesting mechanic
>>2203233>Terraformerstrans men are from marswomxn are from venxs
>>2206734While I think this is a good game overall, there is nothing in Timberborn that isn't also in Dorf Fort. I have no desire to reinstall it.
>>2210163Timberborn has continuous time and space as well as a 3d camera. Dorf has turns and tiles and 2 dimensional slices. Additionally, timberborn has adorable beavers instead of dwarven incels. It's pretty clear who the winner is here.
I hate to say it, but the next flavour pack should be about India.They have so little content it's not even funny.I mean they don't even have caste mechanics ffs.
>>2133238Zero-K
I'm back: >>2178445I terraformed: Prime, Selenea, and Aqualis, in that order. I no-lifed it. Steam says I have 118 hours logged in it and I believe them.My thoughts:>The Good -It's very, very, easy. I don't have to think about anything and like this Anon says: >>2185074 it's a great game to mindlessly play. I caught up on so many video essays. -It's satisfying in the exact way I need a terraforming game to be: ice melts, water pools, canyons flood, the sky turns blue, atmosphere generates, there's a visual environmental process that you can experience. -Making plants and animals was actually really fun. I got very immersed in the roleplay of synthesizing and setting up all these plant/animal stations to seed the planet.-I thought the spacesuits were fun and cute.>The Bad -Inventory/box managment and base building are kind of shit. It's extremely annoying that the only thing that can "craft from container" is the auto-crafter and even more annoying that some of these buildings are so large and yet there's no convenient way to zoom out and get a good broad view of what you're doing. -Transportation is fucking annoying. Vehicles are quick, but they constantly bump or get stuck on shit. The jetpack is "okay", but it doesn't allow you the level of personal mobility you desperately need. This isn't mentioning how fucking hilly and turny twisty every map is. I actually liked Aqualis the most simply because everything was nice and flat. -I'm still super annoyed at the lack of *unique models for insects & animals. There's 15 unique tree models with with 13 additional "bushes", but then only 3 fish models, 3 insect models (larvae, bee, butterfly), and only 1 generic frog model. It was very demotivating to try *hunt down all these eggs/larvae and they're just the same shit different colour. -*Not that there's any point in collecting them since there isn't any unique interactions with biomass.
