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KickStarter Songs of Syx - City Builder/Grand Strategy game with Emphasis on Scale

Joined
Feb 20, 2018
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Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/songsofsyx/songs-of-syx

https://songsofsyx.com





So Songs of Syx looks cool. Looks like it's trying to simulate everything down to individual characters and even class/racial divides and warfare. Which I know will interest discerning members of Kodex Kult. The big draw for me is scale and the aforementioned character simulation.





Play the free alpha here.
 
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thesheeep

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Codex 2012 Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Backed the game. Seems pretty interesting and supports Linux from the get-go, throwing down my cash like it was touched by Boris Johnson after leaving the hospital.
 

oscar

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There's a free unlimited demo (only difference is it seems to be a patch or two behind the paid version). Very promising from what I've played, seems to be scratching that itch for something in-between DF in complexity with Rimworld's sensible UI though this game has scale as its unique selling point (eventually being able to manage kingdoms tens of thousands strong). Graphics and music are very charming too. The latter of which reminded me pleasantly of Dominions.

One to definitely keep your eyes on.
 

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Bubbles In Memoria
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1162750/view/2966165443285843118
V58 Conquest
Conquest has come to the world of Syx

Sorry for having kept you waiting. For three long moths I have added basic Civilization/Total war mechanics to songs of Syx. You can now sally forth and conquer your foes and do that which Conan the Barbarian loves so.

It is now available as a steam beta - V58 Beta. It will remain there until the bugs are sorted. I will try to keep it save-compatible during this time.

I lost tracks of the path notes the first month, but here is what I've got:
  • Entirely new gameplay mechanics for the overworld.
  • Space usage for sprites severely reduced, making it possible for more mods.
  • UI for goods remade. Now merged with trade.
  • Inflation added. 10% of credits per year will be lost. Sorry.
  • Treasury UI remade
  • New Happiness modifiers and fixed ones.
  • Improved Pastures ability to deal with bad daily work.
  • Made Lavatories modable
  • Added some load information to services and heatmaps for access.
  • Added dynamic yield for mines based on assigned workers.
  • Added some kind of growth inside mountains, made mountain generation a bit better
  • Races now have terrain/biome preference in addition to climate. MODDERS: added a TERRAIN clause for
  • animals. Added POPULATION clause to races.
  • Fixed a lot of streaming issues, like discord. Just uncheck "debug" in the launcher, if it complains when you exit the game.
  • Workshop rooms furniture improved.
  • 2 new races.
  • 3 new music tracks
  • Price for leather fixed through a moddable thing in resource init files.
  • Fixed CTD regarding monuments and smaller rooms.
  • Added forums and a wiki to the webpage (well, community did really).
  • Middle mouse button now grabs map.
  • Knowledge cap now limitless
  • Mines now produce according to employees and deposits, you can now build over bad deposits.
  • Administration room, works as library to make admin points, used to upgrade regions.
  • Rations and rationmaker
  • Autosave & quicksave new UI
  • Changed apartments to only need work every 4th use.
 

Kruno

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I haven't heard of this until now. Thanks, I will be keeping an eye out. I hope Sseth reviews this game.
 
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development is just too slow. i played its demo like last year, and the game was catastrophically barebone.
 
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development is just too slow. i played its demo like last year, and the game was catastrophically barebone.
The last build I played I would agree with you. But the next one is adding warfare including sieges. Which I think was a big focus for this game and it looks like it comes with a lot of new features. This is a one man indie job and he updates everyone regularly whilst being approachable and not being a smug pretentious autist like most indie devs. usually I wait for the full game to release before playing anyway. Even if it's something I crowdfunded.
 
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i'm not saying it's bad, but there's almost nothing of all the promised and pretty much required for the genre features. in 8-10 years it might be a masterpiece.
 

Konjad

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Looks very promising, but there's no way one man can handle making such game within a reasonable time frame. It will either fall very short of DF or we're gonna have to wait 20 more years for final release.
 

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Looks very promising, but there's no way one man can handle making such game within a reasonable time frame. It will either fall very short of DF or we're gonna have to wait 20 more years for final release.
He can also go the Rimworld way, and hire extra devs during Early Access.
thesheeep how "complete" do you think is the current build?
 

rado907

Savant
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Apr 23, 2015
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Played it, was quite good, comparable to the beavers game. Overall it's a standard city builder inspired by Settlers, DF and Caesar III, the main gimmick being sheer SCALE. One of the better city-builders of the last couple of years, recommended for genre fans.
 

Mr. Pink

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.


I really like how this game handles religion. Finally, human sacrifice.
 

Axioms

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i'm not saying it's bad, but there's almost nothing of all the promised and pretty much required for the genre features. in 8-10 years it might be a masterpiece.
What promised stuff is still missing? Haven't played it for a few years.
 
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no idea now, but at the time, to name one, it promised to be about conquering lands and... well, you were allowed to have 1 city. that's it.
 

Axioms

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no idea now, but at the time, to name one, it promised to be about conquering lands and... well, you were allowed to have 1 city. that's it.
Oh yeah I recall they are still working on inter-citymap gameplay. I know they just added nobles and shit.
 

Mr. Pink

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
i'm not saying it's bad, but there's almost nothing of all the promised and pretty much required for the genre features. in 8-10 years it might be a masterpiece.
What promised stuff is still missing? Haven't played it for a few years.


https://trello.com/b/wF5RYqdF/songs-of-syx

Far off
  • zombies
  • Water update
    Detailed water-table that can be used as a resource when building parks /grass and can be imported. Canals to be dug. No more removing deep water, one needs to build bridges instead.

  • Artifacts
  • Military Reputation
    Reputation for each army, and a general one for each faction. Prowess: looser - invincible A morale change to the armies Type: merciless - just How you treat defeated enemies. Merciless will give your opponent a morale penalty, just will give your own army a morale boost. Will also grant happiness.

  • Visitors
    Allow for tourists, musicians and traders to visit your settlement. Make a "stage" room for your plebs Make an industry pipeline for souvenirs,

  • Brothels
  • Gamblin
  • elderly care
Near
  • Health
    Disease. Herbs and medicine. Wards/hospis. Filth and rats. Plagues. Life expectancy. Mental health with institutions. Insane people.

  • Nobility overhaul
    Hire nobles from a pool. Pay them in credits.
In progress
  • Military 2.0
    ranged weapons artillery troop movement improvements raiders on the world map

  • Sound engine overhaul
  • Notification/messages overhaul
Done
  • Profile, leveling

    A profile that is saved and maintained between plays. Unlocks "titles" through progress. Titles can be selected for boosts with new games. Saves room layouts and statistics.

  • Entertainment
  • Religion
    Different religions focused on gods. Temples for these religions Human sacrifice Happiness based on religion. Happiness based on opposing religions.

  • Monuments Overhaul
    Ability to mod monuments & decide what floor goes under them.

  • Rebellions
    Rebellions for citizens and slaves. Replaces runnaway slaves. New stat called "tyranny" that is gained through rooms and having divisions set to active duty.

  • Riots & fear
    Riots. Ability for citizens and slaves to rise up against you if unhappy. A new stat named fear and different ways of adding fear to your settlement. fear will deter rebellions and riots.

  • Education & Kids
    Procreation by simply little kids that come into existence. Controlled through a policy and affects happiness by nerfing it. A school, both for kids and adults. A university for higher studies. Knowledge overhaul and finalization.

  • Military
    Everything you need to create and manage an army in your city. Randomly spawn raids on your settlement.

  • World Map Love
    - Redraw the world map. - Region system, ability to claim and tax them. - Revisit map generation. Make it more realistic and detailed - Make primitive kingdom mechanism. - Ensure the world city sprite represents your settlement - climate zones and biomes - dynamic trade

  • World map overhaul
    Urban centres for all regions with mechanics for offensive raids, or the ability to be raided. More options in terms of developing your regions and more visuals to represent it. More sophisticated borders to represent faction capitol regions and their vassals. Ability to create soldiers in the regions you control and muster them on the map. Field battles to be spawned when two armies meet. Region loyalty with uprisings and ability to bribe them.

  • Improved Mod support
    Make rooms and resources moddable. Improve modability of animals.

  • UI overhaul + QoL
    Improve the UI and make things easier to use, especially room construction.

  • Localization
    Finish fonts for latin-1 and move all strings into files.

  • Race fleshing
    Flesh out the races, make more things moddable. Figure out what attracts different races. Create at least 1 more race.

  • Nobility
    Nobility subjects, be able to appoint one, have special AI for them. Have a room for them (with servants). Have them boost production.

  • Slaves
    Ability to enslave someone. Enslave Krull's forces.

  • Resource Extraction Overhaul
    Hunter made into proper rooms with a radius you can set. Mines made into proper rooms, dragged over deposits. Infinite deposits, but extraction will decrease with time. More workstations for industries, should be labor intense. Stockpiles have radius. Fisheries made into proper rooms Production and consumption statistics fixed Stockpile storage increased Industry internal storage decreased Pastures will cost wood and grain to upkeep Grain no longer edible Bakery for grain Kitchens can set what foods they cook Stone made into a mineral New mineral Mineral deposits generate more interesting Happiness boost tied to storage (modable) Farms affected by climate, have process during winter

  • Exposure & sound
    Room will have an isolation value that is affected by surrounding walls. This will be used for degrade This will also be used for sound pollution. Some rooms will want to be in uiet areas. People will get warm/cold. Might die if no shelter is found and they are low on clothes.

  • Climate and world population
    Species will have preferred climates, adding to happiness. The world will be populated according to biomes species prefer Some species will be very rare

  • Crime and punishment
    A bunch of crimes to be committed. punishments for said crimes adjustable- City can fall into anarchy. Guards Prison Execution square

  • burial overhaul
    A mass grave for slaves and enemies A tomb/mausoleum for fancy folk death statistics better notifications A corpse butcherer for cannibalism.

  • Alcohol
    Alcohol Production and consumption. Served in taverns. Remove kitchen and incorporate it into the tavern. Some drunken behaviour. Increases happiness, but decreases work skill a bit (and later, life expectancy)

  • Food overhaul
    Replace kitchen with granary. Have cooking in tavern, feasthall. Serve alcohol

  • Clay + Pottery

I'm actually quite confident about this games progress. Despite being a one man project, the dev has made pretty substantial updates at a regular pace for years and actually communicates with users.
 

Axioms

Arcane
Developer
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Messages
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i'm not saying it's bad, but there's almost nothing of all the promised and pretty much required for the genre features. in 8-10 years it might be a masterpiece.
What promised stuff is still missing? Haven't played it for a few years.


https://trello.com/b/wF5RYqdF/songs-of-syx


I'm actually quite confident about this games progress. Despite being a one man project, the dev has made pretty substantial updates at a regular pace for years and actually communicates with users.

Well if he is getting purchases and supporting himself primarily on gameplay related coding he is living the dream and is probably super motivated to keep programming.
 

Visperas

Augur
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Nov 5, 2013
Messages
513
This looks pretty good. Seems someone is finally challenging Dwarf Fortress in autism. Does this have z levels?
 

Mr. Pink

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I am really enjoying the political layer of this game. It does politics better than any other city builder I've ever played.

The game has you select a starting race, and there are five other races.

Cretonians (gentle vegetarian pigmen)
These pig looking humanoids are farmers and vegetarians. They like wood and round buildings. They have a lower than average intelligence and occasionally commit crimes. Other than that, they get along well with the other races and make for an excellent slave race. They suck at fighting.

Dondorians (dorfs)
Dorfs are low in number but live long lives. They value strength and violence and enjoy drinking more than the other races. They really like square and stone buildings. Are good at mining, but don't actually like it. They are also quite racist.

Garthimis (amoral highly expendible bugmen)
Meat eating ant people with high fecundity and low intelligence. I haven't played much with these guys because I'm afraid of what they will do if I invite them into my colony. Does not seem to have much sense of morality but aren't that violent. Good cannon fodder. Disliked by everyone.

Tilapis (tree assholes)
Not picky about food, appreciates harmony, wood and quite strong. Absolutely despises dorfs.

Humans (assholes)
The most intelligent race. Enjoys wealth and luxuries as much as dorfs. Also the race with the highest propensity towards murder. Excellent administrators and all-around decent at most tasks. Non judgemental.

Cantors (rare tempermental blue giant assholes)
Extremely rare race of giants that have high standards for respect and good working conditions. Because they are giants, they absolutely destroy every other race in battle which makes them extremely dangerous to displease, especially if you choose to make them your military/police. They also hate humans. Incapable of crime as far as I can tell, just don't piss them off.

Note: these are just generalizations from my current playthrough. Individuals all have unique stats and these are just the racial baseline. There are always outliers and exceptions.
-----

In Songs of Syx, every decision you make and policy you enact as well as your environment influences a collective happiness metric for each race. If a race feels particularly maligned, a riot will start and have to be put down with force. You can prevent this by fulfilling this happiness metric, or increasing fear by deliberately terrorizing the problem race with your police force or hostile architecture. Managing public order is the meat and bones of this game. You can enact racial policy to ration resources, job restrictions, set arrest and execution quotas and elevate some races over others officially.

You can even enact final solutions to your racial problems by enslaving or even massacring your own citizens. Watch as your Crantor policemen slaughter the untermensch in the streets and throw their corpses into a mass grave. This will probably cause a mass revolt though.

Syx is a balancing act between pleasing interests. While it is possible to simply never allow other races to settle, there are many jobs that are undesirable like cleaning latrines or mining that are more suited to inferior races and slaves. The diversity and conflicts of interest between races is quite fun to manage (although like real life, power speaks more than anything so you don't want to piss off the caste that can do the most damage).

There are a huge variety of issues that can effect population loyalty. Races want to have their own gods respected, they demand certain food items, certain job types and institutions. Races can be upset by new immigrants and if they feel their majority status is threatened. They can also be upset by seeing fellow members of their race enslaved, or if too many die from mismanagement.

I really enjoy how a natural hierarchy can result due to biological/societal differences and how the game gives you options to even invert that hierarchy as a challenge. I like watching my city grow from a relatively egalitarian village to a highly stratified city-state. The game at this point is a little too easy for me personally as many destabilizing mechanics like disease haven't been implemented yet, but the society building aspect of the game is fun and offers a lot of replay value.
 
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Mr. Pink

Travelling Gourmand, Crab Specialist
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
https://www.pcgamer.com/i-accidenta...giant-blue-cops-in-city-builder-songs-of-syx/
I accidentally made a society of giant blue cops in city builder Songs of Syx

In the world of Syx there's a species of blue giants called the cantor. Created in ages past to act as bodyguards in some divine war, the cantor are strong and resilient, wise judges and skilled fighters. They're long-lived, with lifespans of nearly 800 years, but they're also rare. Few of them are left in the world, and a region with a population in the tens of thousands might have two or three of them.

podpm6wpXDNJKhbyZ6XYrM-970-80.png.webp


Naturally, I wanted to collect as many as I could.

Songs of Syx is a fantasy city-building game, one that starts a lot like base-builders Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress but spirals outward from there and scales up far beyond either. What begins as a humble settlement becomes home to thousands, a city-state that marshals armies to conquer and demand tribute from the surrounding lands—and can even become an empire, conquering the known world. To do that, you command massive battles in real-time combat with tens of thousands of troops.

It's a delightfully complex sim, and though it's still pretty early on in its development Syx has a lot of promise. There are bugs and plenty of incomplete features, but the complexity of a game where you mimic the internal struggles of a vast empire based around a single city appeals to me too strongly to be bothered. The city can't feed itself, so it needs to conquer rich agricultural land to bring in grain. The diverse population that it brings in breeds conflict, so it needs a strong justice system and copious city guards.

Also, there's the king (me) who for some reason just keeps trying to recruit blue giants.

x4vAz3WckEEBLmjjEPpmCk-970-80.png.webp


See, cantors are fussy and needy. They're very hard to keep happy and demand the best in food and services. They'll only stay happy doing a handful of specific jobs: They'll fight, make weapons, and oversee other military matters. But they're precious. Why would I risk their lives?

They're also perfectly happy working in the justice system: They'll be guards or judges without complaint. So obviously the correct choice is to put them to work around town enforcing the law. That's how I wound up with a society ruled by giant, blue cops. As I recruited more and more of these giants I had to turn to ever-more-extreme measures to maximize the species' happiness and attract more: I allowed them as much food and drink as they pleased while other groups were rationed strictly. I gave them special treatment, built palatial housing exclusively for them, and served them in the finest restaurants. Nearly every judge and guard in the city was a cantor, and every noble certainly was.

Meanwhile I conscripted legions of short-lived, bug-like garthimi for my foreign conquests and all but exiled the dwarf-like dondorians into mines and quarries. Humans were relegated to administrators, librarians, and service personnel.

The cretonian hog people? They toiled in the fields and cleaned the lavatories, obviously.

UgW5wLFc4a8f3UGmMKBrQk-970-80.jpg.webp


Maybe creating an over-caste of nigh-immortal giants wasn't my most equitable and democratic choice ever. My pursuit of a funny gimmick had made me the architect of a monstrous society. There were humans laboring in warehouses who had traits to make them tough, speedy, and smart—ideal subjects—while gluttonous, sleepy cantors were appointed as judges or even nobility.

Syx shows so much promise because it lets you mess with the rules of a society as it grows. What starts as a loose collection of communal houses with a poorly drilled militia can, like the Roman empire, integrate its neighbors and conquer the world. You can make your city-state a single species, or a diverse collective of many. You can promote only the best and brightest into the nobility or, like me, design a society that only benefits a privileged few.

Further features are just beginning to be implemented. In the year since it started development, I've seen Syx become a game where armies march on a world map and traders travel to and fro with exotic imported goods. There's the rudimentary skeleton of deeper social dynamics fitting a world based on antiquity, too: Slavery exists, and keeping people in bondage makes those who are like them uneasy with your rule. The future promises slave rebellions—a perennial problem for the Romans, if you remember your Spartacus—and even bonuses for having a society of entirely free people.

3zeSbP9wmddjRaURB7U45P-970-80.png.webp


I can't wait for the warfare system to get deeper, adding missile weapons to the fights and depth to your diplomatic relations with other nations. As simple as it is now, I love fighting battles with thousands on each side—the game runs great even at that scale. It even does fine with a city of well over 10,000. As it stands now, my only real complaint is that the major updates are so different they break your save game… which I don't hate, actually. It's one more chance at a fresh start on my fantasy social engineering.

q95pFBp2NanNMqTRbrgxbN-970-80.png.webp


Songs of Syx is made by a solo developer, Gamatron AB, and has been in Early Access for about a year. You can find it on its website, songsofsyx.com, as well as for sale on itch, GOG, and Steam. There's an unlimited free demo available, but it's a few versions and big features behind the proper release, where my giant blue upper class rule in luxury.
 

Joggerino

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I'm getting filthy rich on mushrooms. I am exporting them for 76 per piece and they are growing in the wild EVERYWHERE. I wanted to set up a mining economy but I can import metal bars for 78 pp. Actually I can import everything as long as I keep picking up mushrooms from the ground.
 

Joggerino

Arcane
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This is a fantastic city builder game but my whole game concept changed after hitting 500 pops since at that point you can start ruling provinces and taxing them. This means I had to shift more into bureaucracy and less into collecting resources. Also the bug men while reproducing fast are not really good for intellectual work so I may have to reconsider who the master race is in my Mushroom Kingdom.
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I'm getting filthy rich on mushrooms. I am exporting them for 76 per piece and they are growing in the wild EVERYWHERE. I wanted to set up a mining economy but I can import metal bars for 78 pp. Actually I can import everything as long as I keep picking up mushrooms from the ground.

actually, you are slowly becoming dependent on the mycelium master-being. For now, it sprouts up some mushrooms in your territory. Once you're wholly dependent on mushroom sales, it will start to make demands. "Oh, you want some truffles? I could double truffle production, if you sacrifice part of your population and let my mushrooms consume them."
 

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