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

Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
9,171
Location
Italy
absolutely not. usually issues come from large colonies/blocks. especially in city builders whenever you build you just solved some previous issues and further might come if you did it wrong.
 

Nirvash

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Messages
1,543
Very well, let's make some tips and tricks or "just strange game mechanics i wish i knew before starting":

Cattle use ground fertility no different than crops, you can raise fertility by irrigation but not alot.
Forget about mining those 30% resources, if you truly want to be "self-sufficent" go for land with 2 iron.
Humans and elves looks like nice easy all rounders but can be a bit of a noob trap, humans easy get uppity, demand alot of things/luxuries for home, not strong fighters and want stone buildings.
Dark eldar, i mean green elf, are... evil (hate other races, like slavery, like cannibalism, like executions, like indoctrination), are all around better than humans (cattle bonus > crop bonus, wood buildings and ask for less things), but, DEAL BREAKER, they want all buildings to NOT BE square shaped, you must be very creative with them.
 

Nirvash

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Messages
1,543
Tech system is... questionable, i SUPPOSE the author wants to simulate oral tradition or something.
Anyway, a tech guy produce x amount of science each... and that's it, is a finite quantity, you spent it and is consumed, but you can "forget" techs and get those points back.
You get to keep the building/producion already built, BUT cancelling basic techs stop the maintenance. (so only forget the upgrades, you don't lose those)
Oh right, libraries are also just some additional +% upgrade for the tech guys for late game.
 

Joggerino

Arcane
Patron
Vatnik
Joined
Oct 28, 2020
Messages
4,588
Tech system is... questionable, i SUPPOSE the author wants to simulate oral tradition or something.
Anyway, a tech guy produce x amount of science each... and that's it, is a finite quantity, you spent it and is consumed, but you can "forget" techs and get those points back.
You get to keep the building/producion already built, BUT cancelling basic techs stop the maintenance. (so only forget the upgrades, you don't lose those)
Oh right, libraries are also just some additional +% upgrade for the tech guys for late game.
The game is all about upkeep and productivity. You're not really cheating the game much by forgetting that building enabling tech, maybe it's useful in the early game only. Because as you grow you'll focus your tech and production into the most productive and profitable stuff.
 

Nirvash

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Messages
1,543
Tech system is... questionable, i SUPPOSE the author wants to simulate oral tradition or something.
Anyway, a tech guy produce x amount of science each... and that's it, is a finite quantity, you spent it and is consumed, but you can "forget" techs and get those points back.
You get to keep the building/producion already built, BUT cancelling basic techs stop the maintenance. (so only forget the upgrades, you don't lose those)
Oh right, libraries are also just some additional +% upgrade for the tech guys for late game.
The game is all about upkeep and productivity. You're not really cheating the game much by forgetting that building enabling tech, maybe it's useful in the early game only. Because as you grow you'll focus your tech and production into the most productive and profitable stuff.
The dev just can't do the standard "generating infinite reasearch points" or "tech needs money/resources" since in this game "time" is cheap, money is a trade thing and resources are not granted.
Maybe is better to just lock all tech to milestones, anyway is a bit dumb to put 10-20% of all workforce in labs.
 

Joggerino

Arcane
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Vatnik
Joined
Oct 28, 2020
Messages
4,588
You are a bit forced into investing in tech yeah, and I'm not sure if a warrior society relying on tribute is viable yet. Administration is another massive expenditure when you branch out to controlling other territories but still more productive in terms of getting resources.
 
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0wca

Learned
Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
545
Location
Not here
Man the recent updates fucked this game up.

They wrecked the production to consumption ratio and now you're constantly struggling to produce enough.

They made the bandits way tougher even from the start so you're basically forced to pay them all the way to mid-game when you can muster a decent force.

Alliances don't do shit against bandits, just other nations. You can't ask for (or even pay for) military support from allies (afaik).

Farms now need wells that have TERRIBLE output, you basically need 2 wells for each farm, with 6 employees each. What the fuck are 6 people doing operating a pump!? You need 1 max 2 people for that shit, unless you're employing kids with down syndrome.

Having multiple races doing their own thing (because they're better at it) is pretty much not viable anymore, even if they're kept in separate districts throughout the city, because they get a penalty regardless. Author said it's because he wants to promote replayability or some shit, but it just makes you pay for more slaves from different races (which means you need more guards, etc.).

All in all, this game used to be a lot of fun and the dude took a completely weird direction with it. 10/10 is indeed incredibly overrated right now.

6/10 right now, 9/10 before the last few patches.
 

Baron Tahn

Scholar
Joined
Aug 1, 2018
Messages
668
Yeah currently I can't figure this game out. Maybe the early game is weird because of the epic scale design later but it is slow going getting to the meat and potatoes - years pass just building basic colonies and battling the happiness system for every few migrants. Trade and diplomacy currently seems borked, wells and hearths are needed everywhere and every time you hit a decent stride the game hamstrings you with some new requirement that you WILL need or go into damage control for another couple hours. The flow is all off at present, but I'm no veteran...I keep waiting for something to click cos I am a Dwarf Fortress NUT and currently this isn't in the same league.
 

Joggerino

Arcane
Patron
Vatnik
Joined
Oct 28, 2020
Messages
4,588
Seems like they fucked up with the fetch radius of warehouses and haulers. Extremely frustrating dealing with this now.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1162750/discussions/0/4360123163649080488/
We got the warehouse and hauler radius slider back which fixes this. Also introduced pull from warehouse settings for export depots which is just the superior option in contrast to the old(new) one. Anyway, there are such wild balance changes and bug fixes almost every day that I do not recommend new players playing the new beta until it's a bit more polished.
 
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Joggerino

Arcane
Patron
Vatnik
Joined
Oct 28, 2020
Messages
4,588
Well, I just started a new game with the newest version (0.66.21) and people are killing each other all over the place and theft is literally disappearing all of my stockpiles.
Like holy shit dude
1714413606693.png

And that's sub 20 population. Kinda hard to unlock guards with this much murder...
The beta is a hot mess


Lmao
1714413770654.png
 
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BrotherFrank

Nouveau Riche
Patron
Joined
Apr 19, 2012
Messages
1,743
So been trying this out, did 2 runs and lost interest at 2k+ population for different reasons.

1st game playing as the elves, wanted to avoid multicultural bs and turned out elves were the perfect race for this. Overall they are a great noob race, being better at husbandry and woodcutting meant a smooth early game, as does their preference for dirt roads and wooden buildings.
Problems started happening once wanted to industrialise, making metal was a right pain but was making a little surplus and thought i was in a good spot... Until raids became more and more bs.

When 400+ raiders showed up fully geared with full plate and CROSSBOWS, that's when i went nope, was relying on my ranged supremacy up to then but crossbows just mowed my troops down.
It was clear by this point i needed to upgrade my elf ranged army from bows to crossbows but the road to attaining the industrial might needed to kill out my whole army was such a slog i was like fuu this, it was my tutorial game anyways.

Lessons learned, i'll pick a race made for industry next time.


2nd game playing dwarves. In retrospect kinda rolled a crap map (and worst on my elf game) except for one thing which became the backbone of my eco: a single massive gem mine with room for 150+ miners with 90%+ gem density. Yeah, that's a lot of gemstones.
Unlike 1st game, took a multicultural approach since i was loathe to abandon husbandry and farming and what not completely so accepted humans and pigmen. It worked well at first, and economy was solid and had a decent industrial base with a small but super elite and well equipped army. Even actually went ahead and conquered my surrounding cities, so far so good.

So what went wrong here? Lack of growth. I wanted to super expand, claim some new caves and suck out the meager but still necessary deposits of ore and coal to be found there to keep my industries fed. But yeah i was stuck on 1500 dwarf population and whilst i could have started laying down human breederies and what not, i did not want to make my dwarves a minority in their own city, as a londoner i already live through it enough as it is ty vm.
So it seemed that the only way to keep playing this game would be to grow very slowly and spoil my dwarves even more then i was already doing but all it takes is one brewery to stop working on 1 side of your city and that dips your happiness to 75%, not good enough. And the layout of my city was pretty spread which didn't help and only further exarceberate the number of people i'd need to staff services and entertainment.

Ultimately dwarves are great, but relying on immigration for new dwarves is a real pain and i only imagined this would get worst the more you play.


Gonna give it a rest until update is out and the kinks are sorted, then probably try humans for my 3rd run.
 

Nirvash

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Messages
1,543
So been trying this out, did 2 runs and lost interest at 2k+ population for different reasons.

1st game playing as the elves, wanted to avoid multicultural bs and turned out elves were the perfect race for this. Overall they are a great noob race, being better at husbandry and woodcutting meant a smooth early game, as does their preference for dirt roads and wooden buildings.
Problems started happening once wanted to industrialise, making metal was a right pain but was making a little surplus and thought i was in a good spot... Until raids became more and more bs.

When 400+ raiders showed up fully geared with full plate and CROSSBOWS, that's when i went nope, was relying on my ranged supremacy up to then but crossbows just mowed my troops down.
It was clear by this point i needed to upgrade my elf ranged army from bows to crossbows but the road to attaining the industrial might needed to kill out my whole army was such a slog i was like fuu this, it was my tutorial game anyways.

Lessons learned, i'll pick a race made for industry next time.


2nd game playing dwarves. In retrospect kinda rolled a crap map (and worst on my elf game) except for one thing which became the backbone of my eco: a single massive gem mine with room for 150+ miners with 90%+ gem density. Yeah, that's a lot of gemstones.
Unlike 1st game, took a multicultural approach since i was loathe to abandon husbandry and farming and what not completely so accepted humans and pigmen. It worked well at first, and economy was solid and had a decent industrial base with a small but super elite and well equipped army. Even actually went ahead and conquered my surrounding cities, so far so good.

So what went wrong here? Lack of growth. I wanted to super expand, claim some new caves and suck out the meager but still necessary deposits of ore and coal to be found there to keep my industries fed. But yeah i was stuck on 1500 dwarf population and whilst i could have started laying down human breederies and what not, i did not want to make my dwarves a minority in their own city, as a londoner i already live through it enough as it is ty vm.
So it seemed that the only way to keep playing this game would be to grow very slowly and spoil my dwarves even more then i was already doing but all it takes is one brewery to stop working on 1 side of your city and that dips your happiness to 75%, not good enough. And the layout of my city was pretty spread which didn't help and only further exarceberate the number of people i'd need to staff services and entertainment.

Ultimately dwarves are great, but relying on immigration for new dwarves is a real pain and i only imagined this would get worst the more you play.


Gonna give it a rest until update is out and the kinks are sorted, then probably try humans for my 3rd run.
As someone who likes to do solo and little to no trade, you NEED a iron source, maybe 2. (well, i also like to put hammers on nearly everything lol)
And you don't really want to do "fast expansions" using humans, overlapping those morale hits on immigration can be a problem.

In the end you are "supposed" to do growth slowy as you build a full service city.
 

Harthwain

Magister
Joined
Dec 13, 2019
Messages
5,274
I like the idea of this game but I'll admit for me personally the graphics are not appealing at all.
I find the graphics to be pretty good relative to what is offered (a TRUE grand strategy game). Then again, I have na inclination towards 2D pixel art.
 
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
9,171
Location
Italy
i aged like bad milk and just recently met real time ray tracing after spending my youth rendering one frame in two hours and there's no turning back from that. this game's graphics are perfectly fine.
 

Nirvash

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 20, 2017
Messages
1,543
Oh right, a common misconception about this game is the dwarves... they suck at being dwarves.
Sure, they are good crafters, but they eat fish and bread, are good at mining but DO NOT LIKE mining iron and coal, and really really want the green rare metal, boh in hoarding and at home.
 

Joggerino

Arcane
Patron
Vatnik
Joined
Oct 28, 2020
Messages
4,588
I'm getting really tired of the bugs and lack of balance. Finally managed to get to the empire building stage though. Taxes are OP as always but it's not the administration that's the real labor sink... (yet)

1715066963546.png

That's 10560 bread per year just to make the rations. (for 450 soldiers) At this point grain is the only food I'm still producing myself because the taxes don't bring in enough of it. Equipment upkeep is significant as well.
 

Cogemesiter

Novice
Joined
May 1, 2024
Messages
73
For some reason I’m friends with the creator of SoS on discord lol. I’ve only played the demo version of the game so I don’t really know what to ask him/ give input.
 

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