Posted on: June 11, 2016

eframson

Games: 261 Reviews: 1

"Banished" in space

From watching the trailer, I expected it to be like Spacebase DF-9, but on a planet. In actuality, it plays much more like "Banished in space" (and I do not at all mean that as a bad thing). I recommend you play the tutorial. It does teach you several important concepts that you may or may not pick up from the in-game hint system, which is admittedly pretty robust. It's definitely possible to shoot yourself in the foot, so the odds are good you'll run out of resources (and lack the necessary resources to build the thing that would get you more resources), or box a colonist in between two paths, at least on your first couple bases. A few things I didn't like: I wish there was a way to manually assign colonists to a certain task. As it is you can choose which type of colonists you'd like to receive (after you've built your first landing pad), there are I believe 5 different "classes", each of them do different (and important) things around your base. But even if you know you have <x> number of, say, Engineers, you might find yourself waiting for 10 minutes while they go and do whatever they want instead of manning the ONE machine that you need to produce ONE part so it can go to some OTHER machine which produces something you need to finish 5 other projects around the base. All building pads have to be built within a maximum--and MINIMUM--range of your existing pads. My current base has an awkward and sizeable empty spot in the middle that I can't place anything in because the connecting paths would be barely too short. It's not always obvious that you're going to end up with wasted space until it's too late...unless you really want to recycle piece-by-piece everything you worked so hard to build ;) Here endeth my complaints. Everything else I didn't complain about, I liked :) (sorry, that's a bit of a cop-out, I know) I recommend it if you enjoy city-building-style games that require quite a bit of thought + planning.

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Posted on: July 18, 2016

nickythomassen

Verified owner

Games: 21 Reviews: 1

Unplayable with larger bases

Since I think this game is one of the best in years I don't like writing a negative review. In the beginning the game is excellent, since it's not hard, shows the player the basics and is quite simple to get started with. It then offers more difficult planets to keep things interesting and to force the player to build redundancy into the base. However, when reaching the hardest planet as I have, and having 125 citizens spread out arccos a wast base, they will begin to die of starvation and thirst when moving around the base. Even though they move through several canteens with plenty of food, water and table space they don't stop to eat and drink. One of the citizens I followed even took the time to be idle in a stocked canteen with plenty of room before moving on and die of thirst. Until the AI isn't suicidal I can't recommend the game. And that is really a shame.

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Posted on: March 20, 2019

adegans

Verified owner

Games: 54 Reviews: 5

Margin for error small, AI too stupid

If all your food production breaks, maintain the damn things. but no, they rather idle around and die. If you really really need plastic, and you have starch. Idle around endlessly instead of using the plastic maker. Because screw progress. If you're a engineer and have bots and machines to operate, lets walk random errands around the base instead of doing the task you should do. That's planetbases infuriatingly stupid AI in a nutshell. It creates a very intolerant and frustrating gaming experience and the amount of times my colony failed because the colonists are just too damn stupid to do their job, prioritise or walk in an efficient route is pretty much every time I tried. But that just make the game more challenging right? No, because the margin of error is so small that there is practically no margin of error. Make one mistake now, see your AI screw up continually and 2-4 hours later you run out of food or ore or something, realising you just played several hours for nothing. All the while pulling out your hair because the AI keeps screwing up. Don't buy this game. Really, don't. It's a waste of money and time of an otherwise potentially great game. Just fix the ret*arded AI and loosen up on the margin of error a little bit. You know, better colony management UI. Some warning system. Or even just a better consumption indicator vs production number in the stocks. Oh why bother, just don't buy this crap game.

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Posted on: October 9, 2016

Verified owner

Games: 0 Reviews: 2

Exciting concept, wasted potential

As many reviewers already pointed out - the game becomes dull and uneventful once the base is established and self-sustained, and the worse part of it is the A[rtificial].I[diot]. which is stupid enough to be able to lead to a disaster in case of a minor setback / mistake. The good: Idea and concept, setting, potential, graphics The meh and the bad (basically there's room and need for more): - Colonists lack any kind of personality and are much like the bots. - Colonists are so specialised that botanist cant operate simple metal processor, or worker cant tend to tomatoes... *makes perfect sense* Better way would be to make actual specialists perform 100%, while others at reduced efficiency, also, personalities from previous point. - A.I. is terrible in many regards. Colonists stop working to get some food, only to realise few minutes after they need to drink, and a few more minutes after that they are tired. So they spend a lot of time actually moving from place to place, instead of working hard and they going to cantina/bar every once in a while. Building and resource management is the same. You can have engineer or construction bot hauling second to last piece of metal/plastic to a building, and turning back to airlock, while just a few seconds later the last piece is hauled by someone else, so some other construction bot/engineer from half-way across the base will stop doing what it did and go build the bloody thing. - Only solar panels and wind turbines. Come on, there are mines, so there can be a reactor building, that would require some kind of mineral/fossil as fuel, which is mineable. - Water extractors... okay, but on the moon lacking any kind of atmosphere and being scorched by solar flares? - Absence of terrain modification tools. If you get a bad starting location you are screwed, twice. - Buildings are damaged to "0hp" but not destroyed by disasters. I once had meteor hitting a full bunk of 18 people sleeping in. They all SUFFOCATED because it was not repaired in time, not because the meteor hit them.

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Posted on: July 27, 2017

snintendog

Verified owner

Games: 415 Reviews: 1

The AI refuse to listen

The basic game goes like this. Start game >build neeeded structures >gather materialr and expand with only storage units to hold the materials that you must grind at x4 speed for 3 hours >eventually get more colonists >hit 59 people start to expand to remove the stupid metors by blasting them out of the sky >watch as one biologist refuses to eat then watch as the rest refuse to eat and die >no food gets produced >everyone starves >colonist ships stop coming to replace the useless biologists >Bots are still working as everyone refuses to do anything and die of starvation >end game. this is inevitable no matter what around 50-59 colonists the biologist all stop eating and die causing a long form game over and the best thing is they don't notifie you they aren't eating until food stops being produced and at that point there is nothing you can do The game is great until that point there are work around like using yellow alert to make them do their job longer and not wonder out side to carry stuff and the priority system but everything is completely ruined due to this random bug. The AI in general seems to prioritze carring stuff i learned that trading ship is a death sentance to your colony at any point and no mateer what i do i cant make engineers make the carring robots they just stand around and do nothing despite having a 100+ metal and bioplastic medic do the same with constructing medkits but if a patient is sick it get priority after about 3 injuries. This game has artificial difficulty with learne how the AI work but it need an extreme overhaul for the AI and how they behave biologists if they are hungry should be more motivated to make food rather than starving themselves in protest the game has great potential so long as your colonists don't become suicidal.

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