City Builder and Colony Sim Discussion Thread

[ZedClampet]

These are some of the hottest categories on Steam with new games coming out regularly, and I know that several of us play occasionally in this/these genres, so I thought maybe this would merit its own thread.

I'm currently playing Timberborn, an early access colony sim about a colony of beavers. Just "finished" my first playthrough (I don't think there are official victory conditions) and am going to start a new colony. This time I'm more familiar with the tech trees and the requirements of each building, so I think I can better organize my colony. My first one wasn't too badly organized, but there was an essential building I missed in the mid-game, and when I got around to it, I had to either build it on the outskirts or start knocking down old buildings to rearrange then. I chose to just put it on the outskirts, but that causes a few slow-downs.

 

[ZedClampet]

Some city builders/colony sims on sale right now during Simfest. A number of them are at their historical low pricing.

Predynastic Egypt on Steam

Do you know how did Ancient Egypt looked like before the Great Pyramids? Lead the future Egyptian citizens all the way through the historical hardships to the Unification of Lower and Upper Egypt, and you will find out!

store.steampowered.com

Historical Low

Save 20% on World Turtles on Steam

The World Turtle carries entire civilizations on its back through outer space, and the gentle Meeps are the only ones on a quest to save it. Cooperation, rather than conquest will save the day, so prepare to harvest, build, research, and explore the void in this wholesome turtleback builder.

store.steampowered.com

The Wandering Village on Steam

The Wandering Village is a city-building simulation game on the back of a giant, wandering creature. Build your settlement and form a symbiotic relationship with the colossus. Will you survive together in this hostile, yet beautiful post-apocalyptic world, contaminated by poisonous plants?

store.steampowered.com

Historical Low

Against the Storm on Steam

A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization's last survivors.

store.steampowered.com

Kingdoms Reborn on Steam

A city builder with simulated citizens, set in a procedurally-generated world map. Grow your kingdom through the eras from a tiny medieval hamlet into a prosperous global empire! Cooperate or compete in real-time with your friends in multiplayer mode.

store.steampowered.com

Historical Low

Timberborn on Steam

Humans are long gone. In a world struck by droughts and toxic waste, will your lumberpunk beavers do any better? A city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, water physics, and terraforming. Contains high amounts of wood.

store.steampowered.com

Historical Low

Save 80% on Frostpunk on Steam

Frostpunk is the first society survival game. As the ruler of the last city on Earth, it is your duty to manage both its citizens and infrastructure. What decisions will you make to ensure your society's survival? What will you do when pushed to breaking point? Who will you become in the process?

store.steampowered.com

Save 25% on Foundation on Steam

Foundation is a grid-less, laidback medieval city-building game with a focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management.

store.steampowered.com

Historical Low

Save 20% on Going Medieval on Steam

Stake your claim in this colony building sim and survive a turbulent Medieval age. Construct a multi-storey fortress in a land reclaimed by wilderness, defend against raids, and keep your villagers happy as their lives are shaped by the world around them.

store.steampowered.com

Save 75% on Endzone - A World Apart on Steam

Endzone is a post-apocalyptic survival city builder, where you start a new civilization with a group of people after an ecological disaster. Build them a new home and ensure their survival in a shattered world, threatened by constant radiation, toxic rain, sandstorms and droughts.

store.steampowered.com

Historical Low

Medieval Dynasty on Steam

Hunt, survive, build and lead in the harsh Middle Ages: Create your own Medieval Dynasty and ensure its long-lasting prosperity or die trying! Play alone or team up with friends to enjoy the ultimate medieval experience.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Zloth]

You're making me want to play some Tropico again!

 

[ZedClampet]

You're making me want to play some Tropico again!

I bought 6 at some point, or maybe it was a part of Humble Bundle. In any event, I need to give it a try.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Still playing Per Aspera in short bursts. Think I might even give the sandbox a go after the campaign finishes as its pretty satisfying to see the terraforming start to work. Its going to be easier to make the process more efficient when I have a better idea of the steps involved.

The story is pulling me along, and there seems to be multiple paths to take so it probably has some replay value outside of sandbox as well.

 

[ZedClampet]

Timberborn has two different factions with different tech trees. It's possible that there are more factions I haven't unlocked yet, or more factions planned for early access. Not sure. But there are 12 different maps. So two factions and 12 maps is pretty good replayability.

I just unlocked the second faction, but am going to continue to play the first one for awhile, and actually am going to keep playing my current game because there are still plenty of things I haven't built yet. Although, honestly, the beginning of these games seems to be the most fun.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I like the sound of Timberborn, but one of the player reviews I read on Steam said that theres basically no endgame after you've built everything there is to build. Is that how it actually works?

 

[ZedClampet]

I like the sound of Timberborn, but one of the player reviews I read on Steam said that theres basically no endgame after you've built everything there is to build. Is that how it actually works?

That is correct, at least during the early access period. That's not really a problem for me because I'm used to playing early access, and I just set my own end goals. And, honestly, there's a ton to do, so I'm more likely to start over than to completely finish everything anyway, but that's just my personality.

There is definitely enough content to get your money's worth, but some people require an "end" to really be happy with a game, which I fully understand.

The thing about early access for me is that I get more play out of a game if there is no end/end game. For instance, I've got over 500 hours in Satisfactory, much of which I attribute to there being no end to the game. If I actually finish a game, or get to the end game, I rarely am inspired to go back and play it again.

I'm talking about two different things here. End and end game. If you get to the "end", the credits roll. If you get to the "end game", you have stuff to do for as long as you can stand to do that stuff, which is usually pretty repetitive.

I'm not sure what an "end game" would look like in Timberborn, but I can imagine just setting more goals, like reaching certain population milestones or certain levels of beaver happiness. Right now, the only sort of "end" that it has is that if you reach level 15 happiness then you unlock a new faction.

The thing about endless play in Timberborn is that the maps are only so big. The biggest map is 256 x 256. However, you can build vertically, too, which is something I haven't done a ton of yet, so I can imagine quite a large colony. Maybe they'll add a procedurally generated map at some point for truly endless play, but I don't know if that is planned or not.

Apologies for the ridiculously long response.

 

[ZedClampet]

Here's another one, Patron, on deep discount and an article from PCG. Not sure I'd like the "navigating social tensions" mentioned on the store page.

One of my favorite survival city builders just got a brand new building mode and a huge discount

Medieval city builder Patron now has a creative mode that unlocks everything from the start, and a 70% discount until July 28.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

That is correct, at least during the early access period. That's not really a problem for me because I'm used to playing early access, and I just set my own end goals. And, honestly, there's a ton to do, so I'm more likely to start over than to completely finish everything anyway, but that's just my personality.

There is definitely enough content to get your money's worth, but some people require an "end" to really be happy with a game, which I fully understand.

The thing about early access for me is that I get more play out of a game if there is no end/end game. For instance, I've got over 500 hours in Satisfactory, much of which I attribute to there being no end to the game. If I actually finish a game, or get to the end game, I rarely am inspired to go back and play it again.

I'm talking about two different things here. End and end game. If you get to the "end", the credits roll. If you get to the "end game", you have stuff to do for as long as you can stand to do that stuff, which is usually pretty repetitive.

I'm not sure what an "end game" would look like in Timberborn, but I can imagine just setting more goals, like reaching certain population milestones or certain levels of beaver happiness. Right now, the only sort of "end" that it has is that if you reach level 15 happiness then you unlock a new faction.

The thing about endless play in Timberborn is that the maps are only so big. The biggest map is 256 x 256. However, you can build vertically, too, which is something I haven't done a ton of yet, so I can imagine quite a large colony. Maybe they'll add a procedurally generated map at some point for truly endless play, but I don't know if that is planned or not.

Apologies for the ridiculously long response.

Got you, hopefully they add something in then.

It only needs to be something like constructing a monument that takes a ton of resources and all end game buildings. Doesn't mean the game has to shut you out once its done, but just so that the game says you've done everything and everything from now on is on your own time sort of thing. A proper campaign with a story that affects the game in interesting ways and forces you to solve problems you weren't expecting as it goes on, even better.

Took me a couple tries in Banished to actually get a working colony that survived the winter and so on, but once it was done and every building built the game just kind of limps on, and like you say is just repeating the same stuff to make a bigger town. Its a huge anticlimax for me and feels like the devs left the game unfinished.

That's just the way my particular brain's broken, as you know.

 

[ZedClampet]

Got you, hopefully they add something in then.

It only needs to be something like constructing a monument that takes a ton of resources and all end game buildings. Doesn't mean the game has to shut you out once its done, but just so that the game says you've done everything and everything from now on is on your own time sort of thing. A proper campaign with a story that affects the game in interesting ways and forces you to solve problems you weren't expecting as it goes on, even better.

Took me a couple tries in Banished to actually get a working colony that survived the winter and so on, but once it was done and every building built the game just kind of limps on, and like you say is just repeating the same stuff to make a bigger town. Its a huge anticlimax for me and feels like the devs left the game unfinished.

That's just the way my particular brain's broken, as you know.

I just checked and they don't have a public roadmap. They basically created a demo, and it was so popular that they released it into early access. They are constantly updating the game, but exactly where they are going with it, no one knows. You have to think it will eventually have some sort of story.

Unrelated, but they have a map editor I'm going to fiddle around with.

 

[ZedClampet]

I have had Aven Colony for awhile now and not played it. Decided to play it today, and it requires a workaround to keep it from crashing to desktop after about a minute of play. You have to either completely disconnect from the Internet, or go into your firewall and block AvenColony-Win64-Shipping.exe

 

[Brian Boru]

Win64-Shipping.exe

I've seen that be a problem in a bunch of games, eg this search.

Dunno anything more about it tho, never met it myself.

 

[Pifanjr]

I have had Aven Colony for awhile now and not played it. Decided to play it today, and it requires a workaround to keep it from crashing to desktop after about a minute of play. You have to either completely disconnect from the Internet, or go into your firewall and block AvenColony-Win64-Shipping.exe

I thought about trying Aven Colony at some point but saw it wasn't rated very highly, so I picked something different. How are you liking it so far?

 

[ZedClampet]

I thought about trying Aven Colony at some point but saw it wasn't rated very highly, so I picked something different. How are you liking it so far?

So far. so good. I haven't gotten very far into it. Going to play it some more today and will let you know if my opinion changes and go into a little more depth about it. I wonder how many, if any, of the negative reviews are because people can't get the game to run since you have to block a file from Internet access.

 

[ZedClampet]

Things didn't go as planned today, so I haven't played more of Aven Colony yet.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Kaamos_Llama There actually is a series of end game monuments in Timberborn, which culminates in the "Fountain of Joy", easily the most difficult thing in the game to build.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

@Kaamos_Llama There actually is a series of end game monuments in Timberborn, which culminates in the "Fountain of Joy", easily the most difficult thing in the game to build.

That does make it sound more interesting, still have to wait for 1.0 though, I'm a man of principles.

 

[ZedClampet]

That does make it sound more interesting, still have to wait for 1.0 though, I'm the scourge of humanity.

Having principles doesn't mean anything. Everyone has principles, from homeless drug addicts to Jim Jones and that guy from Austria with the funny mustache. Equally true is that everyone thinks their principles are better than other people's principles. When this comes up in conversation, they often say, "I have principles" or "I am a man of principles", thus pointing out the superior nature of their belief system. As there must be a differently principled party for the concept to come up, a declaration of principle often results in conflict, from an argument between two people, to the posturing and plotting of rival political groups. And when a very large group of generally homogenous people thinks, "We have principles", war is often the result. So you could say that "having principles" is the root of human problems, the scourge of humanity since its conception.

But it's usually not individual belief systems that are the problem; it is the fanatical belief each human has in their own belief system's infallibility and universal nature. Thus, if a man tells you he has principles, he feels no need to explain himself...

Sorry, I got bored there for a minute and just started writing. Now you're bored too. SUCCESS!

Anyway, no one, not even the developers, has any idea when this will come out of early access. They are basically just listening to feedback and adding stuff. It could theoretically go on forever. They might even add conflict with rival beaver colonies, as I saw people speculating on weapons factories, etc.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Having principles doesn't mean anything. Everyone has principles, from homeless drug addicts to Jim Jones and that guy from Austria with the funny mustache. Equally true is that everyone thinks their principles are better than other people's principles. When this comes up in conversation, they often say, "I have principles" or "I am a man of principles", thus pointing out the superior nature of their belief system. As there must be a differently principled party for the concept to come up, a declaration of principle often results in conflict, from an argument between two people, to the posturing and plotting of rival political groups. And when a very large group of generally homogenous people thinks, "We have principles", war is often the result. So you could say that "having principles" is the root of human problems, the scourge of humanity since its conception.

But it's usually not individual belief systems that are the problem; it is the fanatical belief each human has in their own belief system's infallibility and universal nature. Thus, if a man tells you he has principles, he feels no need to explain himself...

Sorry, I got bored there for a minute and just started writing. Now you're bored too. SUCCESS!

Anyway, no one, not even the developers, has any idea when this will come out of early access. They are basically just listening to feedback and adding stuff. It could theoretically go on forever. They might even add conflict with rival beaver colonies, as I saw people speculating on weapons factories, etc.

I'm not going to reply to this on principle. /s etc.

It was a joke its pretty ridiculous to me to call not buying early access games a 'principle'. My reasoning for not buying EA games is just that I dont have time to play anywhere near all of the games that have already been released over the last 20 years. Let alone if I start digging into games that are still in development.

I'm happy that some devs care enough about their creations to want to involve the community into making them as good as they can be, and if people like to spend their time being a part of that process more power to them.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm not going to reply to this on principle. /s etc.

It was a joke its pretty ridiculous to me to call not buying early access games a 'principle'. My reasoning for not buying EA games is just that I dont have time to play anywhere near all of the games that have already been released over the last 20 years. Let alone if I start digging into games that are still in development.

I'm happy that some devs care enough about their creations to want to involve the community into making them as good as they can be, and if people like to spend their time being a part of that process more power to them.

My ridiculous post was also a joke.

By the way, I played Kingdoms Reborn, another early access colony sim, for about 6 hours today with my son. Progress is incredibly slow, but somehow I had a blast. My beavers would never take that long to build stuff, though.

Timberborn is definitely the most relaxing/chill colony sim that I've played so far.

 

[Brian Boru]

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
—Groucho Marx

I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.
—Everett Dirksen

I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
—Oscar Wilde

 

[ZedClampet]

@Kaamos_Llama oh my gosh. Timberborn actually does have an ending--other than the final monument. I had kind of thought that it might, but I wasn't sure. Now I'm actually seeing it, and I'm not sure what's going to happen when I'm done. It's kind of funny in a way.

Anyhow, it's a ton of work/waiting, and I'm not going to see it tonight.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Channelling George Michael: Wake me up, when it one point O'O's

 

[McStabStab]

I bought the Tropico 6 Caribbean Skies DLC last fall during the Steam Halloween Sale and haven't touched it because other games were pulling me away. Yesterday I took a sick day from work and I decided to play some games while accumulating a garbage can's worth of Kleenex from my head and chest cold.

I forgot how much I enjoy Tropico 6! The DLC adds some really unique and goofy game mechanics that turned out to be pretty damn fun! I'm only on the second mission but I'm happy to have returned to the game after beating all of the vanilla missions.