Build Underground Bases and Mine Asteroids in Surviving Mars: Below & Beyond, Launching September 7th

[Portable Grump]

~Incoming transmission~

Commanders, get ready to explore the Martian depths and extract precious minerals from the elusive asteroids in this brand new DLC for Surviving Mars!

Below & Beyond pushes the limits of what is possible on the Red Planet. Expand your horizons with additional buildings, more resources, and a cavernous world full of mysteries. You can tunnel beneath the surface and construct subterranean bases below the colony and in nearby underground caves. Or you can attach rocket-propelled buildings to passing asteroids and mine exotic resources, but you’ll need to make it back to the Red Planet’s surface before the asteroid leaves orbit or else you lose your stuff and your colonists.

The DLC will launch on September 7th on all available platforms.

Key Features

• Back to the Bases - Expand your colony into caves and lava tubes under the surface. Players can use existing structures, or underground-specific buildings to build a base for exploration. Expand with caution, potential cave-ins can destroy everything.
• Mine Your Own Business - Players can now go below the surface and beyond the red planet for resource mining. Construct special rocket-propelled buildings to mine resources, including exotic minerals and Data Samples, on passing asteroids. Don’t stick around too long or else the Asteroid will drift away with your stuff!
• Branching Paths - The Recon and Expansion research tree unlock additional buildings, vehicles, upgrades, and locales. They will also unlock asteroid mining and tunnel colonization.

Launching alongside Below & Beyond is the Mars Lifestyle Radio. The pack includes 16 original tracks from four different artists, for 70 minutes of chill roving tunes.

Fans of Surviving Mars can check out the Surviving Mars OST Vinyl, available for preorder at vinyl.survivingmars.com until September 7.

 

[David.Pinto]

oh yeah

 

[Mastah Jedi]

Marsian Doom vibes, lol. Dont open the alien cave, it's a trap!

 

[DominusNovus]

I called it!

Now, cave-ins and asteroids drifting away are not exactly plausible concerns, but I understand for gameplay reasons (kind of). Lower gravity means lava tubes are much more structurally sound on Mars than on Earth, for any given size, and asteroid mining from Mars as a base is likely to be of asteroids in the belt, which are generally orbiting the sun in fairly predictable fashion - the worst case situation (assuming you don't just, you know, fire your rocket from further away than you originally wanted) is that you wait for the orbits of Mars and the asteroid to line back up again.

 

[ellacharmed]

Sandworm incoming from below? Just in time for Dune!
(I wonder if it can be modded in?)

 

[Mastah Jedi]

Sandworm incoming from below? Just in time for Dune!
(I wonder if it can be modded in?)

Omg, the spice must flow. U are indeed correct. I'm getting Doom AND Dune vibes now.

 

[rus-chel]

wow, it really come out of nowhere to me.
Good suprprise, but a welcome one.

 

[Walshicus]

I called it!

Now, cave-ins and asteroids drifting away are not exactly plausible concerns, but I understand for gameplay reasons (kind of). Lower gravity means lava tubes are much more structurally sound on Mars than on Earth, for any given size, and asteroid mining from Mars as a base is likely to be of asteroids in the belt, which are generally orbiting the sun in fairly predictable fashion - the worst case situation (assuming you don't just, you know, fire your rocket from further away than you originally wanted) is that you wait for the orbits of Mars and the asteroid to line back up again.

If someone doesn't mod in using this mechanic to set a base on Phobos or Deimos within a week, I'll be surprised.

Great stuff! I've been hankering for more Surviving Mars content.

 

[Joshmaul]

Now, I'm curious - is this going to be part of the First Colony Edition (i.e., free for those who have it), or will this be the potential start of a "Second Colony" bundle?

Also, I too would like to see a potential mining colony up on the Martian moons. We know they're there, after all; who knows what goodies our big potato moons have got?

 

[BlackPrince]

Well that was unexpected, in a good way.

Timing tho.. few days after Pathfinder release.

 

[Mauer]

What music will be in the vinyls? Is it from the radio stations, including dlc ones or something else?

 

[priamossz]

Thank you!

 

[ChoGGi_2]

Now, I'm curious - is this going to be part of the First Colony Edition (i.e., free for those who have it), or will this be the potential start of a "Second Colony" bundle?

I'd assume the new devs would like to get paid for their work.

 

[klopkr]

Oh caves! Now I can make my own alien cave temples to turn the skies blue!

Maybe the map can have some full mountains now that you can dig under them.

 

[Joshmaul]

I'd assume the new devs would like to get paid for their work.

Fair enough. I'd forgotten we'd changed developers... and this would be worth it.

 

[DominusNovus]

If someone doesn't mod in using this mechanic to set a base on Phobos or Deimos within a week, I'll be surprised.

Great stuff! I've been hankering for more Surviving Mars content.

Honestly, they should be part of the DLC - any colony on Mars is going to involve heavy utilization of at least one of those moons.

So… this is a week away. Shouldn’t we have screen shots?

Oh, look!

Save 33% on Surviving Mars: Below and Beyond on Steam

Key Features Back to the Bases - Expand your colony into caves and lava tubes under the surface. Mine Your Own Business - Go below the surface and beyond the red planet to mine new resources. Branching Paths - The Recon and Expansion research trees unlock additional features for exploration.

store.steampowered.com

Awesome, we actually build colonies on the asteroids, not just mine them off screen.

 

[Strabo4]

Awesome, psyched to get more content! I love SM!

 

[gearedone]

i just hope it gets to the consoles too
love the game, but i got everything in console, i hope you understand

 

[AndrewT]

i just hope it gets to the consoles too
love the game, but i got everything in console, i hope you understand

Did you miss this part?

The DLC will launch on September 7th on all available platforms.

 

[OxfordNik]

Really excited for this, but do have a few worries too.

Why no dev diaries? Even when there was a thread asking for them, back in March/April time - with only a week to go... Will there be at least one?

Beta testing - appreciate that the new devs wouldn't necessarily do things exactly like before, but as someone who was part of the Green Planet beta testing contingent, I'd hope there was at least a few people who tested that the additions to the game don't throw everything out too much (and what about modders?)

The short release window in general - how does that make sense (from a marketing perspective, if nothing else), when the outline was known back at the time of PDXCon? I hope that lots of people buy into the new content, but at the moment even I remain to be convinced, simply by lack of comms if nothing else (and I have like 1500+ hrs in the game, 96% of achievements, etc - so I'm probably more invested than the average fan, if not perhaps the average visitor of these esteemed forums...)

Hope my worries are misplaced and it's an awesome addition to the game - certainly looks promising, and the potential is great (especially if there was a way to start the colony underground, as the latest science suggests would probably have to be the case if we ever did colonise Mars irl)