Lack of Late-Game

[Wandering Sentinel]

I have no idea how much and it is likely very low

About 1-2.1 Rare Metals every day per mine if you have another breakthrough and very happy colonists. Not much on its own, but you can build up to eight mines on a deposit if you use an oval dome to tap it, so anywhere from 8-16.8 rare metals each day. This can be made more profitable with scrubbers to reduce the mines' maintenance (and their own)

I originally dismissed the idea of allowing us to terraform Mars as nonsense out of scope of this game. Thinking about it, it could actually be done as the Ultimate endgame goal by pouring countless resources (and time) into it. Would need to be a DLC too. After you are done you are showed a nice planet with the victory screen.

Realistically, if going for an accurate timeframe, if you started on, say, Sol 150, you might finish around Sol 450-600. It'd take an insane amount of time and depending on where your colony is, you'd have to replace all out-of-dome tech with things that can function in a higher-density atmosphere, but if you landed in a low area, you might find your colony underwater and having to adapt to vastly different conditions. With more map variations, you might find it possible to land in nearby areas and have vastly different landscapes and conditions as the red planet turns green.

 

[gjc8]

Have gotten to about 4k colonists and between the tech that gives you the thing which reduces dust in nearby buildings (pizio something?) - meaning you only pay maintenance on that building and none of the surrounding buildings

According to a YouTube video I saw, you can put two of them next to each other and each of them will keep the other clean, so you don't even pay maintenance on them. I don't know if that's intended or an exploit, though (or indeed if it works at all, since I haven't tried it myself).

Still think my original point that early/mid-game challenges go by way too quick, and late game is not really that interesting still stands

Alas, I'm forced to agree.

 

[Zinegata]

-MY POINT is that if this game is not about pure city-building (which it cannot be due to depleting resources), then the challenge phase is too short. Need to either add more filler techs so late-game tech isn't reached by mid-game, expand mysteries, or just have them play out over a longer time-frame, or do something which makes it so the game isn't "over" before I have even built or researched Mega Domes.

I second this. Indeed I would argue it's the lack of lategame content that is more critical than the UI issues (which are annoying but can be worked around), and the worker management (which works if you focus on the right management level).

You can't get people to like a game if they insist on playing it in a way that's frustrating in the first place. But you can end up losing your actual fans and playerbase if they don't have more interesting stuff to do. I personally feel I will do at least one more run after my EU colony - just to see the Marsgate storyline - but after that I suspect the runs will feel too same-y to warrant another repeat.

 

[Wandering Sentinel]

The Tribolectric Scrubbers do indeed work, but not as you state or even all the time. The scrubber cleans a certain amount of dust of most buildings in range (excluding domes) and can even clean pipes and cables, but a single scrubber won't negate the maintenance requirement usually. I've noticed that some buildings require two to keep a building in pristine condition and you need to have the center of the building within the area of effect. Not only that, but colonists with the idiot trait can still cause accidents in out-of-dome buildings they work at that makes them malfunction, something that the scrubbers can't prevent or fix. Lastly, but they're a bit bugged so when you've constructed a large number some have a tendency to stop working until you toggle power for them.

The scrubbers greatly reduce out-of-dome maintenance, but they won't reduce maintenance on structures in-dome, making machine parts almost useless (except for fixing messes made by stupid colonists) and increasing the glaring difference in the availability of electronics related to everything else (since most of the best buildings in-dome use electronics or polymers)

 

[gjc8]

Not only that, but colonists with the idiot trait can still cause accidents in out-of-dome buildings they work at that makes them malfunction, something that the scrubbers can't prevent or fix.

If it's that big of a problem, stick the Idiots somewhere they can't do any harm.

The scrubbers greatly reduce out-of-dome maintenance, but they won't reduce maintenance on structures in-dome, making machine parts almost useless (except for fixing messes made by stupid colonists) and increasing the glaring difference in the availability of electronics related to everything else (since most of the best buildings in-dome use electronics or polymers)

Super-long-game, you could minimize this. The science buildings should hopefully be paying for themselves with Martian Copyrights (or, if not, there's no point and you should get rid of them). Schools are nice but not mandatory. Universities are a bigger deal than schools, but you COULD do without them if you had to. That leaves the factories themselves, which if you're minimizing maintenance should be limited themselves.

Polymer is truly infinitely available, provided you have space for enough vaporators.

Actually, I expect the biggest problem (assuming you can negate out-of-dome maintenance with scrubbers, which I guess maybe you can't if they're bugged like you say) would be concrete. You can get a certain amount from wonders, but the rate is limited, so if your concrete maintenance goes too high, you'll run out eventually (unless you roll the Nano Refinement breakthrough). And lots of in-dome buildings require it, including both grocers and diners and all residences except Smart Houses, which require also-limited Electronics, and Arcologies, which are limited to one per dome). Maybe you could work something out by relying entirely on Arcologies for residences and having everyone eat unprepared food, but that sounds rather dubious.

Lastly, but they're a bit bugged so when you've constructed a large number some have a tendency to stop working until you toggle power for them.

And this, if everyone suffers from it, is probably the final nail in the coffin for going infinite without Nano Refinement.

All that said, I don't think resource depletion is as much of a problem for the endgame as the lack of any meaningful content other than just trying to go infinite for kicks. I'm already in that state (mystery resolved, all wonders built, etc) and wondering whether just getting bigger for the sake of it is worth it, and I still have resource deposits I haven't even started mining yet.

 

[gking.rat]

I don't think it is intended as such, but the inevitability of resource depletion is a neat commentary on the colonial project. Where is the line between survival and exploitation? Can humans survive at all without exploiting exhaustible natural resources? No matter how hard we focus on sustainability resources are consumed and eventually we find a new place to colonize, to exploit, to deplete.

 

[Xavori]

I don't think it is intended as such, but the inevitability of resource depletion is a neat commentary on the colonial project. Where is the line between survival and exploitation? Can humans survive at all without exploiting exhaustible natural resources? No matter how hard we focus on sustainability resources are consumed and eventually we find a new place to colonize, to exploit, to deplete.

Well, if you're going to go that route, you'd start mining asteroids for resources rather than Mars or Earth. In fact, you'd be far better off doing so as dragging resources into and out of gravity wells is needless expensive. On top of that, unlike the game where things like metal just evaporate into the nether, in the real world there is always something left after we use it that can be reprocessed. And if we ever figure out how to really put E=mc2 to work, well, that's that for resource management until entropy

 

[Ri0Rdian]

....
The scrubbers greatly reduce out-of-dome maintenance, but they won't reduce maintenance on structures in-dome...

The DO actually reduce IN DOME maintenance but I am pretty sure this is an oversight

Put Two on edges of my Mega Dome, raised their range to max. One covers University + Science Center + Machine Parts Factory. Another one covers School + Research Center + Fusion Generator. No maintenance needed (except for the scrubbers, so 2x electronics) but I save 5 times as much by using them lol.

 

[EsoEs]

I don't think it is intended as such, but the inevitability of resource depletion is a neat commentary on the colonial project. Where is the line between survival and exploitation? Can humans survive at all without exploiting exhaustible natural resources? No matter how hard we focus on sustainability resources are consumed and eventually we find a new place to colonize, to exploit, to deplete.

For readers of the "Red Mars" trilogoy (everyone on this forum enjoying this game should read!!), Mars colonists were able to push mineral rich and water rich asteroids into near Mars orbit and explot their resources from there.

While not exactly infinte, once humans figure out how to do this (and figure out we probably should be doing this), resources depletion won't be an issue for another billion years.

 

[Xavori]

For readers of the "Red Mars" trilogoy (everyone on this forum enjoying this game should read!!), Mars colonists were able to push mineral rich and water rich asteroids into near Mars orbit and explot their resources from there.

While not exactly infinte, once humans figure out how to do this (and figure out we probably should be doing this), resources depletion won't be an issue for another billion years.

It also puts a damper on the need to expand beyond our solar system. I mean, the majority of human expansion has been driving by resource needs, and once we have enough resources that everyone can have their own swimming pool full of gold coins to dive into, what's the need for that type of expansion anymore?

The corollary is that if terrestrial life exists, you have to assume they'd have the same circumstances. Long before they figured out how to travel between stars, they'd have figured out how to exploit all the resources of their own solar system which kinda dampens any desire to keep expanding. Sure, they might form a science fleet just to go poke around, but it wouldn't be anything that was too serious.

 

[gking.rat]

For readers of the "Red Mars" trilogoy (everyone on this forum enjoying this game should read!!), Mars colonists were able to push mineral rich and water rich asteroids into near Mars orbit and explot their resources from there.

While not exactly infinte, once humans figure out how to do this (and figure out we probably should be doing this), resources depletion won't be an issue for another billion years.

I haven't finished Red Mars (I am currently ~2/3 of the way through) but this is the premise of the Martian Way, a novella by Asimov. The story is about how the Martians (human people from Mars) hollow out a water rich asteroid and use the water extracted from it as reaction mass to get it to back to Martian orbit.