Also, the building editor they started testing in this release is kinda neat. Very easy to put together half decent looking prefab housing blocks. For a first run at the thing it's not half bad.
They still need to work on filling the gaps between certain elements (more a fault in the elements than the editor), the construction planner is a bit obtuse, it's also pretty much impossible to create non-rectangular foundations without the final footprint being way too wasteful, and they need a LOOOT more objects to work with...but it's a good start.
At least now we can make buildings without mandatory road connections.
The infrastructure is now only janky in terms of visuals, the introduction of smoother curves alone made it much more useable. The helicopters are fine, but really need to use them situationally, just like in real life. The best addition IMO is the underground stuff. Hiding and routing pipes under roads is so much better than the clumsy over-head methods we had to use until now.
Looking at SteamDB the price seem to have jumped a bit early January (from £20 to £24). They seem to follow the "more content higher price" path. And the biggest discount ever was 30% usually it's 20%.
Regardless, if you like heavily micromanaging supply chains it's the perfect game for that.
Here's a basic breakdown of the gameplay:
Every single thing need to be moved to be used. That includes resources, vehicles and people.
If you want to build a piece of road, you have to have a supply of materials (gravel and asphalt, and even electronics if you want streetlights), the correct machinery (paver, roller, and dumper trucks to haul the mats to the site), as well as workers (not strictly necessary in this case, but it speeds things up).
Same goes for every single buildable thing. Buildings can be built this way, railroads, electric poles, everything. They all require their own materials, all of which can be built domestically.
You can use money to fast-build/buy stuff but that involves contracting one of the two foreign powers (NATO or USSR) to do the work for you. It's a simple click of a button, and it will be done lightning quick, but then they will charge you for the material costs, the cost of moving the materials to the site, the workdays, everything. It's all done in the background so it's impossibly faster than if you do it yourself. So you either pay for speed, or do it cheaply but way slower.
There are two currencies, dollars and rubels. NATO uses dollar, USSR rubel. If you sell to NATO, you get dollars, sell to USSR and get rubels. Pretty straightforward.
Relatively easy early-game money-making method is refining oil. Here's the breakdown of the very easy two-step chain:
Spoiler:
Left side is the main town with apartments, shopping, a cinema, swimming pool, university, radio station, etc.
The middle part is irrelevant, they are the construction infrastructure and a vehicle building plant.
On the right is the refinery complex, with a couple oil pumps nearby, a train station to the north that brings in additional oil from another site and another station to the south that goes to the border to sell the fuel and bitumen.
That building with the red and white chimney is a heating plant that supplies the central heating to the town during winter colds.
Anyways, here's the breakdown.
- Look at the map for oil reserves. As of writing this, natural resources are infinite, don't know if they want to change this in the future.
- Build oil wells in the area. At this point you have to use foreign help.
- The wells are autonomous and only require electricity, no workers required).
- So you go to the border (preferably to the side you want to sell to) find a border-crossing with an electric station you can hook up to, build a high-voltage power line to the drill site, use a transformer to convert the high-voltage to low-voltage and route it into distribution buildings that can reach all the pumps (use multiples if necessary, using switches to branch off the electric network).
- Build some storage tanks to store the excess oil in case production is more than the consumption. Use merger pumps to link all the pumps together. One pipe outlet can only go to a single pipe inlet. And you'll have more pumps than inlets on the storage tanks so you have to merge pipelines.
- So far this is entirely worker-free, you can sell the crude-oil for a bit of quick buck, but it's way more profitable to sell refined fuel.
- Here come the workers. They require a place to live, bread and meat to eat, clothes to wear, electronic gadgets to to buy, healthcare, etc. They also need warmth during winter if you enabled seasons, and childcare if you enabled complex-school system (women cannot work if they have to look after toddlers, so a kindergarten is needed in that case).
- As far as I can tell they can go without religion and alcohol if everything else is ok (you can build a pub, but cannot build churches without mods anyway).
- They are a needy bunch.
- Now build an oil refinery in a place that is far enough away from the main town so it doesn't pollute the area, but close enough that people don't have to spend too long on the bus going to work.
- If all their needs are met, and the refinery is up, build a bus station in the town and make sure all the apartments can reach it. Build a vehicle depot and buy a couple buses, set one of them up to stop at the station and the refinery (you can go from a station straight to a workplace).
- Oh yeah, vehicles require fuel. Place down a fuel station so buses can refuel.
- Obviously hook the crude oil up to the refinery, and make sure the buses can reach as well. Also electricity.
- Now set up two storage tanks, one for fuel, one for bitumen.
- If the border is far away, trains may be the best option. If it's right next door, a couple trucks might do the trick.
- For trains you need a liquid-loading station, a depot, and depending on if you want electric or diesel trains, an electric supply for the tracks or a refuelling point.
- If everything is working as intended, you can use a truck to keep the different building that require fuel topped up (gas station, for example).
- All the rest can be loaded into tanker cars and sold at the border for big bucks.
Congratulations. you managed to build a simple two-step production chain. Get oil, refine it, sell it. Nothing could be simpler.
At this point you can start thinking about setting up your own construction pipeline. 2-3 construction offices can serve a 3km radius. They house the different vehicles needed for different construction jobs. Dumpers, cement mixers, cranes, pavers, rollers, bulldozers, diggers, etc. Then these offices require a place to pick up the materials. Gravel, asphalt, steel, pre-fab concrete panels, boards, etc. At the start you need to buy all these materials but over time you'll make all of them in-house.
You are still paying for a ton of stuff. Yes, you are very much making a profit with all that fuel you are selling, but you are still paying for food, clothes, electronics, building materials, and electricity. Over time you'll make all of these your own.
It's a very satisfying moment when you build your first building without a single dime spent, using fully-domestic steel, fully-domestic asphalt, etc.
Bring your Soviet republics to the final frontier with a space program befitting your glorious nation. Research new technologies and establish new industries that allow you to manufacture, assemble, and launch rockets into space – from Sputnik 1 to the Vostok program and more, be the first to enter the cosmos and engage in an unprecedented duel with nature.
To push beyond the skies is no simple thing, and with Space Program you can take on the complexities, struggles, and successes of the projects that brought humanity to the stars:
Build universities to research technology specific to space exploration – learn how to refine and store new types of fuel, unlock new modules to build more advanced rockets over the years, and push for increasingly complex mission capabilities ranging from launching your first satellite into different types of orbit through to sending life and even humans into space.
Build a mission control center to manage your launch sites, determine mission parameters for upcoming launches, and monitor what you’ve already put into orbit. Open engine testing facilities to reduce the likelihood of a failed launch, and plan ahead for the inevitable – nearby urban centers are at risk of disastrous outcomes should the worst come to pass.
Establish production chains that convert oil, power, chemicals, and water into kerosene, N2O4, and UDMH – essential fuels and oxidizers for spaceflight. Build new oil refineries and plants alongside hypergolic storage facilities to manage their supply, and invest in new vehicles that can ship these materials across your republic by rail and road to ensure your rockets are fueled at their launch pads prior to liftoff.
The construction of rockets is a feat of science and industry – each part must be individually built at manufacturing halls before being shipped to and put together at assembly halls of varying sizes. While your scientists may develop new and advanced blueprints at universities, your industrial capabilities must keep up to ensure a steady supply of the electronics, steel, plastics, fabrics, and mechanical components needed to build these powerful machines. What’s more, the capacity to ship these components and completed rockets is limited to specific vehicles, introducing new considerations to your growing republic as it seeks to explore the final frontier.
Standard and Proton launch sites will allow you to launch different types of payloads into space – watch them lift off, go through their stages, and settle into their orbits around Earth. Beyond satellites, you can even establish space stations, sending components up individually to rendezvous and dock in orbit.
The exploration of space unlocks great opportunities on the ground – build observatories and planetariums to attract tourists and citizens alike, celebrate your successes with new sculptures, and take advantage of the technological advances of the era through the use of solar heating plants and more.
A brand new campaign takes you to Baikonur at the start of the 1960s. With initial infrastructure and industry already in place alongside a healthy and happy population, you can begin your space program with an existing foundation and learn the inner workings of all the new systems and mechanics at play.
Take on the immense challenge of piercing the skies as you bring your Soviet republics to the cosmos with their very own Space Program.
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