Pacing of this game is weird - or am I doing it wrong?

[harrymanback]

I'm 30hrs into my first playthrough of this now, having started with Green Planet. Ace game, and I love the greening mechanic, but my game now seems stuck in a lull and I don't know how to get out of it. Once Earth goes to war, and the rockets are no more, the colonist tap is turned off, and now I'm effectively sitting around trying to fine tune a steady state economy. Sure my birth rate is giving me a minor uptick, but its slow, and I'm left in a weird situation where I'm unlocking new tech like fusion power, but can't use it because it needs workers, and I'm desperately short of them as it is. So instead I'm building more of the wind turbines I started with.

Between the worker shortage and the really slow rate of terraforming (which I can't speed up without growing my economy, which i can't do without workers...), I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to burn out on this way sooner than I was expecting. Until I can import colonists again I'm really not sure what it is I'm supposed to be doing, beyond caretaking.

I don't want any detailed spoilers for future events, but does stuff happen that gets things moving again?

 

[YertyL]

Birth rate is helped by clinics and directly related to colonist comfort, see here: https://survivingmars.paradoxwikis.com/Colonists#Birth
There is are also several techs that increase your effective pop growth, but part of the game is transitioning from a beginning in which you mostly fly in colonists, and focus on production, to getting comfort and education up to sustain yourself in the mid to late game. The more costly buildings (bar, diner, casino) tend to have higher comfort values, so you can invest in these, though I would not recommend the electronics or art store at this point, because they tend to be just too costly to maintain. The comfort needs of your colonists also depend on their specialization (see the same wiki page), so it helps to specialize domes to 1-2 kinds of workers and cater to their needs directly. You can see which needs are not met in a dome by clicking on it and mousing over the "average comfort", though you do not need to satisfy absolutely everyone.
With some practice, you will more likely have the opposite problem of drowning in births in the late game. Hope this helps.

 

[Foefaller]

There are specials things out there that might get you more people, yes, though if Earth blew itself up you are on your own in regards to resources.

In the meantime, you might add Medical Centers to any dome that doesn't have a spire yet, and upgrade it with holo scanners so the birth rate goes up. If you can keep comfort level high, you'll eventually reach a point that you'll no longer need more applicants. If you are making a healthy surplus on a resource that you need people for, might consider shutting down a couple shifts or even the entire building so you have people to run other things and save on power. And don't forget about building upgrades that might reduce how many colonists you need too.

 

[Mauer]

You can get a short influx of colonists by recruiting from rival colonies, every once in a while, might be enough to keep your colony afloat in the meantime while you solve your birthrate issues.

 

[SillySMS]

For this mystery, eventually passenger rockets will return. Be prepared for additional Fun and Joy down the pipe; Last War isn't ranked as a hard mystery for nothing.

Otherwise, for pop growth, my biggest suggestion is to use apartments sparingly; living quarters are more comfortable, meaning your colonists are happier (and work harder), and reproduce faster.

 

[Promethian]

Try a new game with a different mystery. The war isn't something that happens in every game. Its considered hard for a reason. Bad luck you got a hard mystery as a newbie. At least you didn't get wildfire. I recommend inner light for your first game. It basically has no downside and gives you a nice story.

Also the single thing you can get that will increase birth rates the most is Hanging Garden. Its always deep in biotech but it boosts comfort enough that you go to maximum birth rate in every dome you put it in real quick.

Fusion power is a noob trap. Don't bother with it unless you get the Eternal Fusion breakthrough. Instead go for scrubbers. They remove the upkeep of any out-dome building you put them near. Including other scrubbers. So you can build as many wind turbines or open stirlings as you like with no further upkeep. Scrubbers essentially break the game as they make you have almost zero upkeep shortly after unlocking. Before scrubbers don't forget stirlings for power. If you do it right you'll have plenty of polymers and a decent amount of electronics.

My final tip. You can encourage birth by making sure there is open housing. In this regard it pays to have specialized domes for children and seniors. Neither group works or can have children so making them not take up space in a dome where you need productive people is important. There is an option when you have a dome selected to filter people. So for example to set up a childrens dome do the following:

1. Set up a dome with extra food services and connect it with a passage to your soon to be children's dome.
2. Set up the buildings in your children's dome. There are exactly 3 types and build them in this ratio. 2 nurseries/1 playground/1 school. Open all 3 "work shifts" in every school.
3. Set the dome filter to thumbs up children. The filter when set to thumbs up is an absolute draw. As long as there is an open housing slot someone with that trait in another dome will move in. (side note: thumbs down does not push people out, it just blocks people with the trait from entering)

You can do the same with a senior dome but different buildings. Use residences initially but you can go to apartments once you get Hanging Garden.

 

[harrymanback]

Thanks for thoughts. I got through the lull eventually, and yes then that mystery gets mad for a bit, but seem to have come out the other side!

Are mysteries just randomly allocated to a playthrough? Don't remember seeing any option.

 

[Xeorm]

Thanks for thoughts. I got through the lull eventually, and yes then that mystery gets mad for a bit, but seem to have come out the other side!

Are mysteries just randomly allocated to a playthrough? Don't remember seeing any option.

One of the options when you start is for what mystery you want. By default it's set to random.

 

[SillySMS]

Thanks for thoughts. I got through the lull eventually, and yes then that mystery gets mad for a bit, but seem to have come out the other side!

Are mysteries just randomly allocated to a playthrough? Don't remember seeing any option.

Congratulations on surviving the Last War on your first play through. Hopefully next time will be easier. And, as mentioned, the first panel on starting a new game let's you select a mystery, choose a random unplayed mystery, or choose no mystery.

If you want to try a mid tier mystery, the Spheres mystery lets you trigger it at any time, letting you build up your colony first. Be ready; its endgame can become a mad rush if your production or stockpiles aren't up to scratch.

 

[King of Zoot]

The last war is a tough mystery and really changes up how you would normally expand. Certain breakthroughs such as cloning and biorobots can turn a run on its head as well.

 

[harrymanback]

Congratulations on surviving the Last War on your first play through. Hopefully next time will be easier. And, as mentioned, the first panel on starting a new game let's you select a mystery, choose a random unplayed mystery, or choose no mystery.

If you want to try a mid tier mystery, the Spheres mystery lets you trigger it at any time, letting you build up your colony first. Be ready; its endgame can become a mad rush if your production or stockpiles aren't up to scratch.

It looked a little in doubt for a bit at the end(!), but thankfully I'd kept tension low enough earlier on that when the last rush happens I only needed to complete one or two of the last demands.

Related question - once the mystery is done, and the end game becomes terraforming (with Green Planet I mean) - do people start banning new births from Domes? I'm finding I can't keep up with the birth rate now its past 1k, and there doesn't seem to be a need to have an expanding pop at this stage. Not that getting it steady will be easy, given how crude just turning domes on and off is, and the lag involved in that... Don't want a China-style demographic timebomb!

 

[Xeorm]

It looked a little in doubt for a bit at the end(!), but thankfully I'd kept tension low enough earlier on that when the last rush happens I only needed to complete one or two of the last demands.

Related question - once the mystery is done, and the end game becomes terraforming (with Green Planet I mean) - do people start banning new births from Domes? I'm finding I can't keep up with the birth rate now its past 1k, and there doesn't seem to be a need to have an expanding pop at this stage. Not that getting it steady will be easy, given how crude just turning domes on and off is, and the lag involved in that... Don't want a China-style demographic timebomb!

At that point it's whatever really. Some do, but it can be fun to try and keep up while still making headway on other goals.