This is an excellent game. The most fun I've had with a citybuilder since Frostpunk. There's a bit of a learning curve in the beginning, but give it a shot.
I think it does a great job of slowly granting access to more stuff as you learn. I haven't found it too overwhelming at any point.
It's a Rougelite Citybuilder with a demo that lets you play the actual game (only limits your max level and what biomes you can play in). That's all it took to get me in.
This game is great. I don't usually play city builders and I have 80 hours in it or something. Really fun to pick up for an hour or two when you want something that is challenging but also chill.
I just busted the Lead Seal Yesterday. Fuck me is Pioneer hard. I don't know how you're supposed to do it on harder difficulties. It's like the storm hits and then everybody's negative 16 resolve, and I just start pissing away workers.
Part of it is just leveling up your citadel. Some is the game dripfeeds new systems and buildings to you that make things more complicated but also help with happiness. A lot of it is just learning what it takes to keep people happy.
Keep playing on difficulties that feel manageable, and when it starts to feel like you can handle it, then bump up the difficulty then.
In the harder difficulties, you have to micromanage everything all the time, and it takes forever.
Some towns are just going to fail if you're unlucky… But you can set yourself up for success by learning which Services buildings to pick. Some like the Temple (reduces hostility) and the Guild House (increases resolve every time you buy/sell) can be instrumental to surviving harder difficulties.
I'm not convinced there are "unwinnable" settlements. They might be unwinnable for me at my current skill level, but there are people who play at Prestige 20 who I'm sure couldn't possibly lose at the difficulty I'm playing at regardless of what RNG throws at them.
I encountered a settlement on Prestige 15 or so which had a base hostility at level 2… and a ~15% chance of villagers dying every couple of seconds starting at hostility level 2 during the storm, mitigated by access to services. First storm wiped out my town before I could really address anything 💀
Edit: But having played quite a bit this was a rare combination of bad effects
Make sure you have housing for everyone, upgrade your hearth, and unassign your woodcutters during Storm.
Citadel upgrades for essential blueprints of race specific housing and field kitchen will help keep resolve up in the early game.
Cornerstones the reduce hostility will help a ton in the mid to late game.
Edit: And don't open a glade unless you have a reason to. Every glade you open increases the hostility level.
Personally I don't open small glades unless I have a cornerstone that triggers off it or my humans or foxes have seen something there. I'll spend the first 2 years building up my initial settlement, then start of drizzle year 3 break open a dangerous glade for those sweet event rewards. I'll continue to open a dangerous glade every year or two afterwards depending on how things are going.
Much like how once you get comfortable with the difficulty level it's time to increase it, once you feel comfortable with how your settlement is running it's time to open a dangerous glade.
Such a good game. I picked it up during last year's Winter Sale on Steam. I've got about 200 hours in it so far, and I'm playing up to Prestige 8. It's pretty challenging at that level, and I'm not sure how to progress past it.
I'm glad to see the devs have announced 1.0, although the game has been totally playable since I first picked it up. I love the effort and work they put into every update, and I'm really gonna miss them adding and improving stuff.
I'd like to get into this but I just didn't find the initial gameplay good enough to get me into the game loop. I'm sure one day I'll give it time. But right now I didn't get what was fun
I just used cheat engine to freeze the bar that ends the run and played as a city builder. I found it a lot more entertaining that way
After completing a settlement you can choose to continue playing it.
Without any progression and you still have to rush the victory instead of being able to chill and play it, you're missing the point
Wish this was a game mode option as a standard part of the game.
Sort of sandbox but not.
I do like the games but one thing that really bugs me is that you lose because of "queen impatience"
Like, what? It's just so petty and infuriating when you do lose because of it. That queen can hold on one more god damn season to get the last needed thing. She'd rather destroy an entire town though. Makes it difficult to want to complete the outposts for such a terrible ruler.
