Feedback wanted: Where are you getting stuck?

[tanzmetall]

Quote:The latest version of the game, though, has an Advisor panel, which should be rather urgently telling you to double-click or hit Return at that point.  Is this not happening for you?  (Or maybe this happened in an older version of the game, before the Advisor?)

Huh, interesting. I definitely have the Advisor panel. (That's what I meant when I mentioned the "tips" panel.) I find Advisor really useful, but it wasn't talking to me during path placement. I am using version .25.

The paths went through the zones, but I just never double-clicked to "end" them, which, I believe, caused the system to think they didn't really exist. Once I started ending paths properly, doing nothing else differently, people started moving into my stations.

I'd be happy to send you my colony files where I used unfinished paths. Where would I find them?

[JoeStrout]

Colonies are stored in the application data folder, which varies by platform (for example, on the Mac, it's in ~/Library/Application Support/HighFrontier/).

But I don't think you need to trouble with that — I'll just reproduce what you did (ending a path by planting a tree) and see what's going on under the hood.

Things are a little crazy here because of the holidays, but I bet we'll get to that this week, and definitely before version 0.26 comes out!

Thanks again,
- Joe

[JoeStrout]

Hey, I should have followed up — we did indeed reproduce both of the problems you mentioned. The Advisor was not being very helpful with regard to ending paths, and if you "ended" a path by switching modes (for example by planting a tree), it didn't really create a path at all — it just stopped the creation process. So it looked like you had a path until you saved and reloaded, but it wasn't really there (and so no buildings would get built).

Both problems have been fixed in 0.26. You might not notice the improved advice in your current game, since by now you've probably demonstrated that you know how to do it correctly (and the Advisor tries hard not to tell you things you already know). But you would see it in a new game.

Thanks again for pointing these issues out!

[RyanFullmer]

I've run into some interesting issues! The people on the Squawker continue to complain about the landscape being dry no mater how wet I make the colony with the landscaping too. So unless that isn't the way to fix their concerns that needs to be fixed. One other thing I noticed is that I can not make colonies that have radii in kilometers. Is that a size only available with higher tech levels or is that really how small they have to be?

[JoeStrout]

Right, you don't fix water shortages by adding lakes — you have to supply enough water to all the buildings and trees. You do that by building dehumidifiers or water treatment plants.

And yes, you can't build colonies with a radius over a km or so — to do so would require greater material strength than real materials have. (Even at 1 km, the pressure vessel has to be obnoxiously thick.)

[RyanFullmer]

(02-09-2017, 08:15 PM)JoeStrout Wrote: Right, you don't fix water shortages by adding lakes — you have to supply enough water to all the buildings and trees.  You do that by building dehumidifiers or water treatment plants.

And yes, you can't build colonies with a radius over a km or so — to do so would require greater material strength than real materials have.  (Even at 1 km, the pressure vessel has to be obnoxiously thick.)

Ooooh I see now.  There go my dreams of giant O'Neil cylinders!  One useful feature in the future would be an indicator for water usage in the colony so I know how many water facilities I need to meet demand.

[AthenaRoberts]

(02-13-2017, 08:51 PM)RyanFullmer Wrote:

(02-09-2017, 08:15 PM)JoeStrout Wrote: Right, you don't fix water shortages by adding lakes — you have to supply enough water to all the buildings and trees.  You do that by building dehumidifiers or water treatment plants.

And yes, you can't build colonies with a radius over a km or so — to do so would require greater material strength than real materials have.  (Even at 1 km, the pressure vessel has to be obnoxiously thick.)

Ooooh I see now.  There go my dreams of giant O'Neil cylinders!  One useful feature in the future would be an indicator for water usage in the colony so I know how many water facilities I need to meet demand.

I second the motion to add an indicator for water usage!  :-)

Athena

[JoeStrout]

(12-22-2017, 04:15 PM)AthenaRoberts Wrote: I second the motion to add an indicator for water usage!  :-)

OK, OK! In the meantime, I recommend planting some trees. Trees and grass will turn brown when water is tight, so you can use that as an indicator (well, in addition to the big blinking water icons on the buildings, of course!).

[AthenaRoberts]

I'm getting stuck at around a population of 8000. Can't seem to get beyond 8200. I do a lot of variation on my zoning and I've even brought colonies back from large debt by changing zoning. That has helped increase the population along with making the habitats as large a possible. My current max size is 410 meter radius by 410 meters long cylinder with end caps of -0.2. I improve access to the zones with an extensive road system. I help the colony remain profitable by making sure there is an abundance of zoning for farming. Particularly for low and medium density. I have rarely/never seen anyone build on a high density farming zone so I don't use those anymore. I typically wind up with an annual income of around $500 million and my colonies have available funds of a $1 billion or more. I've noticed that farms are the only thing that produce income via exports in this game. None of businesses are the type that would have exports.

Regards,
Athena
athenaroberts.pw

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(12-22-2017, 04:34 PM)JoeStrout Wrote:

(12-22-2017, 04:15 PM)AthenaRoberts Wrote: I second the motion to add an indicator for water usage!  :-)

OK, OK!    In the meantime, I recommend planting some trees.  Trees and grass will turn brown when water is tight, so you can use that as an indicator (well, in addition to the big blinking water icons on the buildings, of course!).

I agree. That's usually been my guide.  That and people complaining about a lack of water or the quality of it.

[AthenaRoberts]

I love this game!  It's inspiring to me and I'd love to keep playing it.

Some areas I've had problems dealing with:

1.  I've no idea how to keep things from burning down and having fire departments around doesn't seem to help and neither does calling them.  It's common for me to lose several buildings at once when there is a fire.  With crime, I've noticed adding lights will lower the crime rate of an area.  For some reason, I"m not sure why, dehumidifiers always attract crime in this game and they are the most likely to burn down.  They've burned down so often that I've concluded maybe I have too many of them. So, when they burn down I don't replace them.  However, I always replace water treatment plants when they burn down.  How do I mitigate fire hazards?  How are there even fires?  Didn't we learn from Apollo 1?

2.  Having cops and firemen doesn't appear to affect the frequency of crime or fires nor do they respond to those events when called or they get there way too late.  Those two "services" do increase my payroll though.

3.  I had expected being able to mine NEA's would reduce material costs and become a source of revenue for the station.  That hasn't happened.  The same goes for the Fuel Depot project

4.  The only activity that produces exports for the colony is farming.  There are no businesses I've seen in the colony that manufacture anything that one could export.

5.  Getting to 10,000 residents.  The closest I've been able to get is around 8200.  I posted earlier about that.

6.  The lack to XP for achieving other noteworthy mileposts.  XP is awarded for $100 million/year income.  What about for for $200 million or $500 million or more?  At least I haven't seen any.  XP is awarded for having 2000 residents, but the next award is for 10,000.  What about for 4000 or 5000?

7.  I have available cash of $1.5 Billion at my stations.  I'd love for there to be a way to use that to improve the station or progress in the game.  What about trading cash for XP?

8.  How is there crime in a space station???  I can't imagine people who do those things living long.  I'd like an option to send those people back to Earth if not out the airlock.  I find myself wondering what sort of people they are sending to my stations.  I'd like control over who immigrates to them.

9.  I'd like to be able to adjust my tax rate.  I've noticed that the average total taxes paid per resident is around $36,000 per year.  That seems excessive unless the average income is well into 6-figures for each of them.  I've no idea how much any of the residents make.  But, if I can make the station thrive via exports, I see no reason to have high taxes.

10.  The Earth Elevator project.  If we invent the materials to build a space elevator, we have the materials to build stations much larger than 1km and at lower cost.

11. I've noticed that the CPU/power usage when the game is running is very high.  About 7-8 times higher than when I use it for other activities.  That means that I have to keep my laptop plugged in if I want to play it.  I've no experience with other games so maybe that is normal.  But, I wish the power requirements were lower.