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[thobal]

So, why is Sol Zero called Sol Zero?
Because that's not a very accurate notation of where Mars is. In fact it's not an accurate notation of where any planet is (unless you start counting at 0 like what computers do).

Because on Mars a "day" is not an Earth day, so they call it a Sol(24 hours 37 minutes) to distinguish from a 23 hour 56 minute day like you'd have on earth.

So the first day you arrived would be Sol 1 or Sol 0. Depending on what you are counting from.

[ollobrains]

the dev would be better off putting his time into this, its well along, open source and in need of his type of contributions though its come along over the years http://mars-sim.sourceforge.net/

[Il Palazzo]

Way not to read the few pages of the thread, eh ollobrains?

[Graknorke]

Way not to read the few pages of the thread, eh ollobrains?

Hehe. That's pretty funny.

[Reyn]

Stop posting shit that has nothing to do with the thread itself.

Version 0.42 has been out for a couple of days, coming with some nice changes, and even though it was initially said v0.4 will most likely become the beta version, thus increasing price by 1$(up to a whopping 3.99$), this has not happened yet.

Changes:

• at the beginning of a game you can change how often disasters strike(none at all, half of previous versions, now considerent normal, and frequent, which is the same as previous versions). If you choose to play without any disasters, you won't be able to accomplish challenges.
• farm upgrading changed so it's more interesting, and more scientific
• geology lab has an upgrade which improves durability of constructions(they are no longer destroyed by first touch)
• oxygen travel is better & consistent(recedes by 2% for each tile, after the first 3 tiles)
• improved pathfinding(not yet perfected), improved "resource profile" window
• going in the launch screen won't break the actions of astronaut and forklift(more to come)
• for more, check the official site

[Retropunch]

Stop posting shit that has nothing to do with the thread itself.

No.
To be honest, we have been pretty on topic and although this thread is about Sol Zero, comparing it to other similar games is part and parcel of an open, non game specific forum.

It sounds rather as though you're involved with the project to be honest. If you are that's fine, but don't come around and say what we can and can't post about.

[Zireael]

I'd try it if it were free, but since it's not...

[Retropunch]

I'd try it if it were free, but since it's not...

There is a free Demo which I think is quite fully featured. Worth having a look at if you're into that kinda game, as it's very cheap and in active development.

[GavJ]

I've played a few hours now on both maps. Still haven't been able to get to 20 population without any deaths but I was able to get a functioning base up with full biology/geology research done so I got one of the achievements.

Some tips/observations:

1) On your initial launch, bring a rover, astronaut, enough food/water for 60 or so days, and then max out supplies. When you first land, deploy only the rover and send it out exploring looking for water. Don't deploy the astronaut before day 60 -- it won't actually use any of the food/water until you deploy it. Once you find water, immediately build a solar power array and a water cryotank. This will let you ignore water for subsequent launches.

2) The rover can push boulders around if you click on it enough. This is likely a bug but if you have boulders in the way of your planned buildings, you can get them out of the way.

3) Initial buildings should be a four-way hallway with a greenhouse, habitat, straight hallway, and an oxygen generator. Build solar plants as needed to keep enough power. It's better to have the power beforehand because bad things happen when you start running low on power.

4) Don't build a bunch of extra buildings because there is some "cap" on the number of structures that you can have based on your population. If you go over (or your pop falls under), shit starts blowing up randomly which is f'ing annoying. If you do hit the cap while building your initial buildings, send up an astronaut on your next trip which will give you some breathing room.

5) Once you have a functioning habitat, build a launch pad and send up a big rocket with some colonists. That extra pop will give you some breathing room from the building limit cap.

6) After you send your initial colonists, you'll need to find some methane so you can refuel and send back the big spaceship to get more colonists. Use the rover to go searching for methane and build a cryotank when you find it.

7) Once you've got methane collection up, start building another habitat so you can support the next group of colonists. You need to have a pop of 8 in order to build the geology and biology labs.

8 ) Biology lab lets you build farms which start out only producing 1 food/sol but can be upgraded (using mined materials) up to 3 food/sol making them better than greenhouses. They also don't need to be connected to pressurized hallways. Once you get a single biology upgrade, you can demolish all your greenhouses and replace with farms.

9) Geology lab lets you build geothermal power plants which don't need maintenance like solar plants and produce as much power as 4 "dirty" solar power plants. Unless you like micro'ing and keeping an astronaut assigned to solar plant "cleaning duty", I'd suggest just demo'ing the solar plants and going full geothermal.

80% of these are just descriptions of dumb exploits or ways to attempt to work around dumb gameplay hurdles-for-the-sake-of-hurdles.
I mean, good on you for competent problem solving and whatnot, but this sounds like an absolutely terrible game from this post.

[Retropunch]

80% of these are just descriptions of dumb exploits or ways to attempt to work around dumb gameplay hurdles-for-the-sake-of-hurdles.
I mean, good on you for competent problem solving and whatnot, but this sounds like an absolutely terrible game from this post.

While I agree to a point, we are on the forum for a game with a lot of...quirks. Many things Ballc420 says aren't too bad, and it's hard to judge something from those things alone.

It's being worked on, so it'd be good to keep an eye on it I think. 

[Graknorke]

Wait... geothermal power plants on Mars?
Would that even be feasible?

[Retropunch]

Wait... geothermal power plants on Mars?
Would that even be feasible?

SCIENCE!

The utility of geothermal energy on Mars  - http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mfogg/fogg1996.pdf

[Graknorke]

Wait... geothermal power plants on Mars?
Would that even be feasible?

SCIENCE!

The utility of geothermal energy on Mars  - http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mfogg/fogg1996.pdf

Huh, so you just have to find where's a good place for it. Alright, I get that.

I do like that table of power sources though:
"This table is looking a bit sparse. I'd best stick some cool stuff on the end."

[n9103]

Picked this up.

[Tilla]

Still need a bit of work - we can build a base on mars but not intentionally move or destroy a few boulders? - but it is promising.