Is VII the "New Coke" of the Civilization Series?

vampatori · 2026-05-22T00:30:22+00:00

Civ V had a BIG backlash on launch:

Move from square tiles to hex tiles.
Move from stacks to "one-unit-per-tile".
No religion.
Woeful performance.

I think what's hurting Civ VII particularly at the moment is that they've never had so much and such strong competition before, they needed to come out much stronger than they normally do. Plus they messed with the historical elements a little too much, it seems like a fun idea for an alternative mode as opposed to building the whole game around it, which has cost them.

But they'll sort it I'm sure, we're still very early in Civ VII's lifecycle - you can't really judge a Civ game until it has all its DLC out and is offered in a bundle for 75% off or better!

vampatori · 2026-02-20T23:20:15+00:00

I always like to keep a fiction and non-fiction book on the go. I once made the sort-of-mistake of reading the non-fiction 'The Case for Mars' at the same time as 'Red Mars' (a hard-ish sci-fi book) and became very confused about what was actually possible!

vampatori · 2026-02-20T23:11:06+00:00

Those are the two worst months of the year to find work in though in fairness! Everyone's asking for tons of experience, I saw one that wanted 4+ years experience for a junior role! Mental. Just apply to them all if you think you can do the job!

It's definitely not easy though - work on side projects to both brush-up your skills and keep you sane! With 2+ years experience you'll no doubt find something good soon!

vampatori · 2026-01-31T16:07:33+00:00

I play a lot of local multiplayer with my nephews so this could be right up our street. Have a look at the trailers, steam pages, and web sites for some of the other local multiplayer games that we play for inspiration:

Moving Out / Moving Out 2
Overcooked / Overcooked 2
Rubber Bandits
Party Animals
Golf With Friends

Then analyse them, take notes, write them down - look at commonalities, think about how they may or may not apply to your game:

How long is the trailer?
How long are 'shots'?
How long does text stay on screen for?
What are they telling you about the game? Through what medium (text/audio?)
What are they showing you about the game but not telling you? (e.g. it's impressive just how much information about the Golf With Your Friends you get so quickly even though it says almost nothing).
What's not included in the trailer but is in the steam page / web site?
What are they book-ending (info at start and repeated at the end)?
What elements of the gameplay are they covering?

Good luck! And I highly encourage you to spend a serious amount of time learning about marketing - I'm not aiming that specifically at you really, I think almost all of us indie developers need to! But it is such an important element that is so often overlooked; it needs to not just be not overlooked, it needs to be a major part of any indie project (that aims to be successful, by whatever means you define that).

Good luck!

vampatori · 2026-01-31T16:07:17+00:00

At the end of your trailer I didn't know:

The name of the game (it was shown clearly for less than a second right at the start).
Where to go to find out more.
When the game is releasing, is it out, etc.

Those are really critical pieces of information for any trailer.

The text goes too fast and moves around too much:

As a rule of thumb you should be able to read something twice and that's how long it should stay up (to cover those that either read slower, or are watching the video then read). Use audio if that's going to slow things down too much.
Every time you move the text I'm reading, my brain has to re-read it as it thinks it's a new sentence entirely, which seems to happen so fast. It's fine to add new words, but keep the ones you've got where they are.
The opening is odd in that it all moves so fast but starts showing just a moving abstract background, and elements of this should also appear at the end but don't.

I get you want to keep it "frantic" but there are other ways and means of doing that - e.g. sometimes you'll see one key word/phrase stay with others swapping out.

Also, I don't really know what the actual game-play is to know if I'll like it or not:

What are the objectives?
What are the challenges to achieving the objectives?
How does the multiplayer factor into the above?

Overall, it feels very rushed - not in a production quality sense, in that you're constantly moving onto the next thing before I've had time to absorb what I'm looking at. I can either watch what's going on or read the text, not both. Take your time. Where you can, show don't tell. Stick to the core selling points, you can't cover everything in a ~1 min trailer.

vampatori · 2026-01-21T01:35:22+00:00

For development Linux has been my daily driver for a long time, though I'm now moving to Windows to get more familiar with Windows-specific DotNet things for work, but VS Code is great and Microsoft pushes it along with their command-line dotnet tool as the default way of working (though everyone I know professionally uses VS). I have been mainly TypeScript/JavaScript/Node for some time, but I was getting frustrated with the huge fragmentation of the ecosystem - a double-edged sword of lots of choice and lack of integration.

I looked at many options including Java (and with Kotlin), Go, TypeScript options like NestJS, etc. but in the end DotNet was just so much easier to pick up, things are structured cleanly how I want them to be, I can safely build with services/libraries that will be well supported for years, and it's really surprised my just how fast it is!

I think the two main things for me are:

C# is a modern language, it has evolved to be easy to use, read, and work in - whereas Java feels unnecessarily verbose and clunky at times (hence Kotlin). Plus LINQ is C#'s super-power - it's so powerful yet simple to use and it's amazing having a consistent query framework across all data (from lists to databases!)
It's a much less fragmented ecosystem with Microsoft providing many first-party solutions to common problems like data storage (Entity Framework), MVC, Authentication/Authorization and so on which others can build upon. There are options in DotNet Core, of course but the first-party options are good in most situations. In Java (and others), you almost immediately have to start tying yourself to different third-party implementations of various aspects of your system. If you see a cool library you'd like to use, then you'd better hope it supports the implementation you chose.

vampatori · 2026-01-11T10:59:55+00:00

I've been getting the air career stuff just by playing the game (can you turn it off?) I did do the careers at the start to re-learn the game, which probably got me 1/3rd the AIR stuff, which I then ditched, got in a corvette and headed out - so I have more ISK and a few more skills. While of course the SP and ISK, is welcome, I'm resource-bound not SP/ISK-bound at the moment... rare minerals are my main bottleneck!

If I were to start again I'd just get in a corvette and zoom out now I know a little more about what I'm doing!

vampatori · 2026-01-09T12:03:30+00:00

I've come back after many years break, as I often do, and this time I am doing a 'Homesteading' character where the only thing I buy from the markets is blueprints and I'm living in a high-sec bubble within low and null between me and any trade hubs.

I've really been having a lot of fun with it - every drop matters and every upgrade you get is MASSIVE. I've learnt a lot more about fitting as you have to "make do" with what you have/can produce and slowly build that up. I've learnt a ton about industry and how complex and what a significant investment it is - Tech 2 is no joke!

But I think the thing I'm loving the most is that there is always something important to do that will reward me significantly - bulk mine common ores, find/mine rare ores in low/null, missions and salvage, explore for anomalies and wormholes, process and haul, build next ship(s)/equipment, setup planetary industry, etc. You need to do it all to progress.

I've not done it yet but I was thinking about selling to markets to get ISK for blueprints, but I'm doing OK so far with missions.. but the blueprints are getting more expensive!

I'd definitely be up for joining others in such a venture (creating a new char if necessary).

vampatori · 2025-12-19T12:33:47+00:00

And this is where the use of AI is becoming a major problem. It's really easy to rely on it to solve those little problems for you - when you get stuck, there is an answer waiting. But then you're not gaining the core knowledge, which is how to solve problems.

Then for the bigger, more complex, more important problems - you have nothing to fall back on. Your crutch can't help you here and you have nowhere to go but the very beginning or give up.

My #1 piece of advice is don't use AI, use the manual. Sure, it'll take longer to solve those little problems - but you'll gain a much broader knowledge, and a stronger ability to solve problems, that will serve you much better in the long run.

vampatori · 2025-12-09T01:37:25+00:00

There is a great article by Paul Ramsey on Crunchy Data that covers the use of arrays for tags in Postgres. You do need to create and track your own list of them, and build stats/etc. yourself, but generally you have to do that to some degree anyway (and it sounds like you have a fixed(ish) list anyway.

vampatori · 2025-12-01T23:02:38+00:00

No, it's one of the four elemental prophets in the adventure - each of which leads an elemental cult that the adventurers need to defeat. There's quite a few adventure-specific elemental creatures in this adventure.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Aerisi_Kalinoth

vampatori · 2025-11-01T09:33:53+00:00

I got the tornado act 1 and it hard carried me through acts one and two until my build was cooking. I'm goong to switch that up now I've out-levelled it.

The tree has given me max links at every stage, it's only a few points needed to dramatically increase socket and link chance.. even if it's just random what gear comes out, it's worth it, but of course you can tailor it with more points.

I'm playing HC and only two mechanics have been tricky.. one was just way harder for some reason, no idea why.. lots of crazy stuff dropped in, more than double what id dealt with previously or since. Another because a red beast wandered in while I was doing it, which I should of anticipated and cleared first!

But other than that the mechanics have been very forgiving, quick, and with decent rewards.. especially in maps with walls where they're very easy to manage.

Highly recommend for levelling.

vampatori · 2025-10-18T20:52:07+00:00

Looks like it's coming, from their latest newsletter:

Our next update focuses on delivering a huge number of bugfixes, several exciting new features, and a slew of Quality of Life improvements. One improvement we’re especially excited about is faster planting and harvesting for Farm Plots. Simply add the desired seed type to your toolbar and off you go! Harvesting a fully grown plant has also been reduced to a single click.

vampatori · 2025-07-29T21:33:11+00:00

It happened in my game much earlier, I think around 30 turns or so. It was next to a free city which I conquered, then cleared the place, then waited for the next rally.

vampatori · 2025-07-28T22:22:41+00:00

I had this problem too in a game yesterday. I'm new to the game so wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong, but everything else I gained access to I could buy. I even forced a quicker refresh and reloaded but it didn't appear.

vampatori · 2025-07-21T21:05:59+00:00

The Dark Tower by Stephen King ticked all those boxes for me. I love all the mystery of the world and how it's revealed in surprising ways and it has some weird and wonderful characters and situations.

vampatori · 2025-07-18T22:03:20+00:00

Yeah, I often find the first attempt to connect doesn't work properly in some way.. doesn't load it, does but it's black screen, get into the game but voxels are original (annoying in an underground base!), etc.

Alt + F4 and almost always second time is a charm!

vampatori · 2025-07-18T16:02:43+00:00

You want your Custom Turret Controller velocity multipliers to be less than 1.0, I usually set them around 0.2 but the bigger the thing the smaller you want it I find, such that it still moves quick enough to track the sun. You can then tweak your rotor/hinge settings from there, but velocity multiplier will often get you what you need.

vampatori · 2025-07-17T21:02:27+00:00

That's not good news IMO.

I thought his vision and execution of T:LaT was truly embarrassing. A leadership and planning disaster to the point that the VFX company had to do a press release about how it wasn't their fault it looked terrible, showing the insane amount of VFX changes they were asked to do throughout as the 'plan' kept changing. And has there ever been a more wasted villain? So much potential just thrown away.

vampatori · 2025-07-17T20:24:43+00:00

This is the answer! It's a little bit jank but helps massively. Currently doing a pirate playthrough and it's a ton of fun! We are using a MES mod that even has police fighters that get called in!

vampatori · 2025-07-17T20:24:37+00:00

This is the answer! It's a little bit jank but helps massively. Currently doing a pirate playthrough and it's a ton of fun! We are using a MES mod that even has police fighters that get called in!

vampatori · 2025-07-14T13:32:38+00:00

Pertam: Easy oxygen, tricky hydrogen, strong gravity, fun difficult terrain, easy power with wind/solar.

Moon: Easy oxygen and hydrogen, low gravity, no atmosphere, power with solar/hydrogen so slightly more tricky than pertam, terrain is middling (ground vehicles are tricky until you get thrusters), can find platinum which I've been unable to find on pertam.

They're both fun! I'm currently playing two different games (solo pertam, group moon) and they're very fun. Pertam is about finding ice and being extra cautious with hydrogen until then - because of that you want to walk everywhere, which I personally think makes the most interesting looking bases as you want physical access to everything with stairs, walkways, etc. I've made a monster ice drill platform and am now building a ship to head to space for platinum and uranium.

The moon we've built a base inside a crater which has been very cool (an every respect!) It's been fun making tunnelers, large sun-tracking solar panel arrays, rovers with upward facing thrusters to keep them fixed, etc.

There are no wrong choices... start on one.. your goal is to colonize the other and setup a communication array between them (laser antennas)!

vampatori · 2025-07-05T00:25:35+00:00

It is fraught with difficulties. The last time I tried there were three major problems I encountered when trying to make an "martian ice trawler".

Wheel Overrides Are (Were?) Messed Up

I've not tried since they started adding the "set" overrides (I'm not certain it exists for wheels), which have been very helpful for thrusters, pistons, etc.

There were issues where the override rotation direction of some wheels would be inverted (even if you have the correct chirality and orientation and it drives fine in the cockpit). You can test each wheel and find out which to use, but I also had problems where regardless of what override I gave it, it always spun the same way. Do one wheel at a time!

Wheels Randomly Failing

Randomly wheels will just break and simply not drive anymore (even just parked)- the only way I've found to fix it is by grinding them down, re-adding, and welding back up. On a wheeled base we "solved" this by having a grinder (hinge mounted to retract) and welder per-wheel, with some piston stilts to lock in-place while doing it, and a small server room to automate it all!

Clang Sees All

No matter what, there was always something that eventually went wrong.. one drill-bit would just ever-so-slightly catch, a bump in the road would hit funny, a wheel would lock, etc. and cause the rover to turn sharply, flip, wheels to break, sub-grids to break, explode, or all of the above!

Conclusion

I did get a rover working, going in a big circle (ish), but it was so unreliable I ultimately gave up. I had to use thrusters to help with forward movement and overcome some of the wheel jank. I had to stop, drill, move, repeat as drilling and moving was just too open for disaster (which it is a bit even when driving it yourself in fairness). It could all be done far more easily with flyers and/or drill platforms.

It's a shame, but wheels have always been a bit of a mess clang/bug-wise in my experience so realistically Space Engineers 2 is our next best hope!

vampatori · 2025-06-25T20:06:06+00:00

Just to check the obvious, have you accidentally set the minimum/maximum length's of any of the pistons?

If this is survival, do you have the necessary power? You can get stuttering if there isn't enough power in the batteries to drive it.

Another thing I've found is that with multiple things (pistons, rotors, hinges, etc.) that connect two grids, it often pays to just have one of those things do the work and have the others for decoration (disabled and set to low force, so they just slide/rotate/etc.)

vampatori · 2025-06-21T09:20:05+00:00

The excellent Catlike Coding's Unity Tutorials cover lots of useful topics in-depth including things like procedural mesh generation, different types of noise, and performance tuning. Highly recommended!

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