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Dev Diary 12 - Challenge Accepted! By Boian Spasov from Haemimont Games

Hello and thank you for checking out this shiny new dev diary dedicated to the upcoming update, codenamed Sagan. While our previous update (Da Vinci) catered mostly to our players that like to focus their efforts on city-building in Creative Mode, Sagan's main feature is targeted towards our more hardcore survivalist crowd. It introduces a new game mode meant to test your colony building skills as well as your mastery of not just surviving under the alien conditions, but being fast and efficient while doing so.

Challenges
How can you measure the skills of a player in a sandbox city-builder? Even in a survival-oriented one, like Surviving Mars, the difference between a very good player and merely a competent one is often in the efficiency and game time they need to accomplish their goals. While the existing Score system tries to evaluate this to some degree, it is far from perfect, and there is really no fair way to balance it for all possible play styles and game rules.

Challenges are meant to be our answer to this problem, introducing a new way to test your skills. Each Challenge presents a single objective before you that may be as simple as "complete the Founder stage" or more complex like "research all technologies". All Challenges are time-limited, so you have to optimize your approach and be efficient to pass the test.

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Each Challenge is set on specific map coordinates, with a particular sponsor and game rules. If you are attempting a Challenge, you are playing under the same basic conditions as any other player. As a side effect, specific Challenges encourage you to try combinations of sponsors and game conditions that you would likely not experience otherwise. No Mysteries are active during the challenges, because we don't want any distractions to get in the way of pursuing the challenge objective.

Each Challenge has a time limit to be "completed" - you will fail if the objective is not completed during this time. If you manage to finish a challenge exceptionally fast, in another, much tighter time frame, it will be considered "perfected". While completing some challenges can be a significant feat on its own, perfecting them is balanced to be a challenge. Even our most dedicated players here at Haemimont had to learn new challenges and rethink their approach more than once while pursuing perfection. And if you are really adventurous you can try to set your own record - how quicker than the perfected deadline you can finish a challenge? We expect to discover new ways to play our own game more efficiently once we see what the best players can do.

We have created three different Challenges for all sponsors, except Paradox Interactive, since we wanted to avoid exclusive challenges locked behind the bonus sponsor. Challenges vary in playtime greatly - the shortest can be completed in just a few Sols and are ideal for a quick play session that still puts your skills to the test, while the longest can take hundreds of Sols. Each sponsor offers three Challenges spanning different time frames.

If you particularly enjoy a given Challenge playthrough, you are free to continue playing the map as a normal sandbox game after the Challenge has ended, even if it was failed.

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Maps
We've made some pretty significant changes to our maps in Sagan with two main goals in mind - to guarantee that players playing on the same map encounter the same technologies in the same order and to increase the overall visual variety of the maps. The accumulated changes will make sure that all maps in the game will be different than the maps on the same coordinates that you've visited pre-Sagan. On the upside, they should remain significantly more stable in future releases.

To guarantee an even playing ground for the Challenges and for the players that like to compare their score and accomplishments while playing on the same map, randomization of technologies and possible breakthroughs is now map dependent. This means that if you are playing on the same coordinates the technologies in the research screen will always appear in the same order and encountered anomalies will tend to yield the same breakthroughs. If you are lucky to get a particular breakthrough or technology early, keep in mind that all players playing on the same map will also be able to do so. The one exception is the "Chaos Theory" game rule that will offer a true randomization of technologies, even on the same map just for the players that enjoy a completely unpredictable experience. Of course, technologies added in future updates will also shake the status quo a bit.

Revisiting the map generation logic, we noticed that several sets of environment objects and map themes were underused, resulting in many maps ending much more visually similar to one another than our artists and level designers intended. We tweaked the map generation algorithm and you should see more radically different maps from now on. Check out the screenshots below for some beautiful landscapes from the new maps.

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Self-sufficient Rovers
Managing battery power of your Rovers almost never provided real survival challenges, but was an annoying source of frustration, especially when managing multiple vehicles at the same time. As part of our initiative to reduce tedious micromanagement and focus your attention on more important mechanics, we removed the batteries from all Rovers and made the vehicles self-sufficient. Drone batteries and Charging Station still work like they did before and we are quite happy with them.

We also redesigned to Rover Command AI technology that previously removed Rover batteries as part of its effects. Currently, in addition to increasing Commander Drone capacity as before, it provides a much needed automated mode to Explorer and Transport functionality. This handy feature was inspired by some of the most popular mods out there - thanks, Mod creators, keep being awesome!

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Patch highlights

As is tradition, I will end with some highlights from the patch notes. Feel free to check the complete list when it comes out (which will be very very soon!).

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- Concrete deposits have been reworked to work more like other existing deposits. Their functionality now depends on the deposit marker, instead of the exact coverage over the yellowish terrain patch. Concrete Extractors can now easily exhaust nearby markers without the need to place extractors to cover up the whole patch, a feat that was practically impossible in many previous cases.

- Popup messages were getting a bit too intrusive, so most of them now appear minimized as a notification and do not interrupt gameplay. They will be maximized automatically if you don't pay attention to them for a while, but generally are less likely to interrupt you. We were happy to find out that players tend to pay more attention to messages when they are opened manually instead of automatically.

- Dust effects of buildings and rockets are now visualized by building placement and selection, making this process more transparent. It is now more obvious why buildings tend to malfunction near Extractors and rocket landing sites.

It is time to wrap this up. Please, share your favorite challenge and best time when Sagan comes out! And stay tuned, something big is on the horizon!
 
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I like 99% of the things here, but I am not sure about the fixed order of technologies for each map. Some maps, like Mons Olympus, I may want to play multiple times but still be surprised - without going all Chaos Theory and have my first techs be spires and shuttles. Maybe there can be a lighter version of Chaos Theory that just detaches technology order from the map, but doesn't make it fully random.

Seeing that many people are expressing similar concern, we will definitely look into making a game rule that allows randomized technologies, but without the added havoc from the Chaos Theory. This will not make it into Sagan, but hopefully we will have time to do it for the next update. Thanks for your feedback!

edit: I can now confirm that this game rule has been approved and will be done for the next large update.
 
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Me too, feel concern about that change of Tech.
In one hand - now, with my girlfriend (which one I have finally push into arms of Mars :D but it was hard) we can play that same coordinated map and have that same feeling and chances, and now, we are able to compare our plays.
But in the other hand - randomization of techs, makes me play some maps more times, than one. This time, it will be pointless because all openings will be the same.
I'm looking forward this patch, but I have faith that You will do something with that techs idea, please.
And I'm looking at the horizon, but i can't see anything. I hope it will be something huge, but as I assume, it is really far away from us.
 
I think having fixed techs for each map is going to be interesting, but the randomized tech did make the maps more replayable. I'm in favor of having some kind of check box that shifts the maps back to their current level of randomization when checked at the start of a game.
 
Rover batteries always felt like make work to me, and concrete harvesting quickly became annoying.
Being able to choose random vs non random techs on a map is a good improvement as well.
Looking forward to starting a new game when the patch is released.
 
Each Challenge has a time limit to be "completed" - you will fail if the objective is not completed during this time. If you manage to finish a challenge exceptionally fast, in another, much tighter time frame, it will be considered "perfected".

Is there any information on what the "tighter time frame" is for each challenge?

I'd like to add it to the wiki.
 
The timers for both completed and perfected are displayed when you start a challenge, but I don't think there's a way to check beforehand.

Thanks. I hadn't gotten as far as actually starting one, so I did not know that.
 
You are correct - it was fewer unique maps than I thought.
Out of a little bit more than 50000 maps, there are just 2101 totally unique settings in the database.
Before Sagan or after Sagan? Thanks in advance!

I'm very pleased by the work on maps! Early, it felt as if map geography (ups and downs) was very limited, disguised with random deposits, anomalies, and terrain features. Thank you also for variable research to come!

Disasters can outweigh skill sometimes. I incautiously sent my science rover out, and it took a direct hit from a meteor; game abandoned (about Sol 10; Paradox Interactive, so what research?) Next game, I put my rover behind a MOXIE and a water tank, and all three were destroyed. Sigh. Would a small radius, missile-based meteor defense system be unbalancing? Of course, where you could get the graphics for that is a mystery.
 
I would like to be able to repeat Wonder research to be allowed to place multiple identical or similar Wonders. I can think of only one that would be a problem. If you really want to fill the map, the Rare Metals from one Mohole aren't enough to make the Electronics you need. Disposing of the extra common Metal seems solvable, as is.

Everyone else?
 
I would love to see a dozer added to move small rocks and grade slight imperfections in terrain so the Terraform cheats aren't needed for building. And if possible make the tube network between domes subterranean and ignore grade differences between domes like tunnels do. Add commerce between established colonies on other maps not just Earth.
 
after a few challenges I strongly vote for a randomize option. I get the idea that the challenge should be the same, so it is comparable especially for seed* runs, but it breaks the fun for me. As it is now I start a challenge not to complete it rather then just learn how the RNG works. Every time I have in the back of my mind "this I have to do the next time". One option would be open up all "random" events (no hidden tech show all resources and so on) so you can make the same (informed) decisions you would make after a few playthroughs. Or what I prefer a different RNG seed. I know this is already in work but please make it also available for the challenges.

Edit:
* I meant Speed runs ;)
 
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I'm not sure I entirely understand, but I think I agree totally with Happy Marvin (HM) above--and PI, I think you should bring this to the attention of HG.

1. (As you've said, HG), the tech should usually be randomized; but also the standard names suggested for save should include the tech seed so you can get the same tech seed again, maybe something like 12n123e456t. Do whatever, but let me say, "I had this fantastic run! You must try _____!" As I interpret Happy Marvin, do everything possible to enable "seed runs"--never keep the final seed a secret!

2. I will expand on what Happy Marvin says: Have a "dial" for tech visibility. Normal is 1 tech/area. (I had a wonderful run where I got the automated fusion breakthrough before fusion, and I just pounded for fusion and then went all unmanned fusion. It was a delightful run!) So, 1 is normal; 2 is two techs per area revealed ... 5(?) is the whole first area of tech revealed, and so forth. Difficulty drops as more techs are visible. This is the difference between Chess or Go and Catan! All are very valid, good ways to play; they are different: some like one; some like another; some like all.

3. I would not like to see breakthrough techs revealed, but as long as I can set it to normal (zero, 0) then I don't care; and I might change my mind!

4. You should have different area, tech, and breakthrough seeds. "I love the 12n123e area, but I'm tired of tech tree 456! And with unmanned fusion so low in the breakthroughs, we need a different 'B' seed, so let's use 12n123e555t666b!" Some breakthroughs just "demand" you use solar or wind or fusion instead of the alternatives--you want to be able to replay these again a little differently.

5. [Maybe too hard] I've seen the 2-spire oval dome many times. I haven't seen the other 2-spire dome. If I could put into my "seed" "b89!" to force a tech into breakthroughs, that would be great--RNGs can have a long run avoiding something--one outcome is as likely as any other outcome--so give players a choice to force a tech.

6. The Challenge seeds, see (4) above, should be visible. I would like to play a normal game with some challenges. The mysteries are wonderful, but SM has a large gap between the mystery and all the objectives being reached. I understand the workshops, but I--just me--don't find that objective satisfying. I'm sure you have a long-term plan for this period in the game, but a temporary solution would be useful.

Thank you, PI and HG and HM!