Monthly Archives: October 2018

Meeple Station Preview

By Terris Harned (NWOrpheus)

Ever since the introduction of Dwarf Fortress colony survival games have been growing steadily in popularity. We now have titles like Oxygen Not Included, Rimworld, and Judgement: Apocalypse Survival. One thing that all of these titles have in common is being trapped in two dimensions. Gnomoria was one title that released with a 3D aspect, but generally speaking it’s considered abandonware. It was released with a huge number of bugs, and then development stopped.

Enter Meeple Station by Australlian based development studio Vox Games (not to be confused with the American studio which became Polygon.) Meeple Station puts you in control of a space station occupied by little digital entities called meeple. Meeple have jobs, just like peeple people. They can be engineers, refiners, janitors, chemists, officers, and more. Meeples exist to do your bidding and create the space station you’ve always dreamed about.

Meeple Station Screenshot

 

 

Like with most colony survival games, you don’t actually have any sort of direct control over your Meeples. Instead, you assign them tasks like mining, building, refining, or killing. When meeple are hungry, meeple will eat. When meeple are tired, meeple will sleep. If meeple don’t like what they eat, have to eat standing up, or have to sleep on the ground, your meeple will become angry. It’s your job to tell meeple to make beds (preferably in a bedroom), to make food dispensing areas, tables and chair, etc.

Additionally, once you get your first officer meeple, you will be able to assign researches to be done on the station. Research is important, as it will unlock additional objects for you to build, including but not limited to shields for your station to prevent it from getting blown to bits by meteors.

Meeple Station Screenshot

 

Much like this power conduit, the game is under construction.

The game as it stands is in a very raw state. This is understandable however as it’s only just gone into Kickstarter as of September 4th of 2018. The developers have a lot of work to do, but they also have a lot planned.

One of the things I’m very intrigued by is the potential for multiplayer. This is something that I have seen many players of colony survival games request, but it’s not something I’ve seen developers implement in the genre. Meeple Station will allow up to 12-player cooperative play.

Furthermore, Vox Games has some exciting plans in regards to the ability to move your ship from place to place, so if you mine the resources from one region, you can go to another. They’ll also be implementing a hangar bay for you to be able to control your own ships. As it stands, you can build an airlock  and assign it to trade, allowing other ships to dock with you. This will also be your source of additional meeple, as you hire travellers from ships to live on your station and do your bidding.

Meeple Station Airlock

 

Giant meteors won’t be the only threat you might face, either. Enemy meeples will try to invade your station, giving need to security meeple. Also, giant electric space squid, and something about clowns.

Frankly, I’d love to see Meeple Station be successful. It has a strong community forming around its official Discord channel already, and a few first play videos around YouTube. I’m going to withhold a rating on this one because it’s just too early and too raw to give it a fair shake. It’s definitely going to be a game to keep an eye on if you enjoy the myriad Dwarf Fortress clones currently on the market.

Earthfall ‘Invasion’ Update Launch Date Announced

Holospark announced today that the next major update for Earthfall will be hitting all platforms on October 30th, 2018. The “Invasion Update” will bring a new Horde mode, a player progression system, and redesigned sound effects for weapons provided by renowned Hollywood sound studio Formosa Group (Blade Runner 2049, Deadpool 2, John Wick 3, Uncharted, God of War, Last of Us). Horde Mode will have four maps where players fight back a countless stream of alien horrors, and the player progression system will offer 50 levels of cosmetics and player abilities to unlock.

“We wanted to show our fans how serious we are about the future of Earthfall, and that is why we sought out the best sound design team in the world to level up the audio of Earthfall,” commented Collin Moore, Senior Community Manager, Holospark.

Cities: Skylines – Industries Announcement

Coming on October 23rd, 2018 will be a massive update to the Cities: Skylines title that puts the Industrial zone in the spotlight for the first time. In it, players build unique factories and customize their industrial area with supply chains for the various resource types. Well-managed industrial areas will be more efficient, and there will also be a new city service for handling maail and cargo airports will ease important and exporting. “Industries” will also have five new maps, new policies, city services and much more.

“With this expansion, players can make more meaningful choices in their cities’ industry by managing their production chains from grain to bread.” said Sandra Neudinger, Product Manager from Paradox Interactive. “The players have been asking for an industrial expansion for a while, so we’re excited to finally offer a full featured approach.”

Features of Cities: Skylines – Industries:

  • Make It Happen – Follow your products from harvesting to processing, storage and production, then transport them to commercial zones or export to other cities.
  • Captain Your Own Industry – Define an area with the industry area tool and place highly specialized industrial buildings to build and manage the production chain from raw material extraction up to final end product. Industry Areas are divided into four types based on the natural resource they are processing: Farming, Forest, Ore and Oil. These areas can level up upon reaching productions goals and staffing requirements.
  • Build it up, Buttercup – New industrial buildings include Extractors, Warehouse Facilities, Processing and Auxiliary Buildings, Industrial Props and Roads. Unique Factories, such as Food, Toy, Furniture, Car and Electronics produce luxury products, and require a large quantity of workers, water and electricity as well as input from your industries.
  • Ship It – Manage traffic and logistics with industry warehouses and the use of the new Cargo Services including a cargo airport.
  • Go Postal – Boost your citizens’ well-being with mail delivery and collection services. Post sorting facilities handle mail between outside connections and the post offices, and new Post Van and Truck vehicles enable the carriage.
  • Wonk Hard  – Three new Industry Policies and four City-wide Policies, including Workers’ Union, Sorting, Tolls, Wi-Fi, Logistics, Work Safety and Automation.
  • Five New Maps – Rich in natural resources, transportation options and industrial opportunities, these new maps have all the right stuff.
  • Four new hats for Chirper!

Conan Exiles Releases Their Biggest Post-Launch Update Yet

Conan Exiles Update 34 Announcement

A massive free update hits Conan Exiles today, with Update 34. This update brings the mighty new Midnight Grove dungeon, as well as a new religion that allows players to summon the flying avatar of Jhebbal Sag. Players can also tame animals in this update and use them in battle, or even build a farm to produce materials that you can put to use. Funcom also noted that Conan Exiles is their bestselling and fastest-selling game ever. They also released the “Savage Frontier Pack” which launched on PC and is coming to console on October 17th. This is similar to the other two DLC packs, and is available for 9.99.

“Pets and taming are important new additions to the gameplay in Conan Exiles,” says Creative Director Joel Bylos. “This is something players have been asking for and we are very excited to finally be able to bring it to them. First you must head out into the world and either find an animal egg or a baby, put them in your animal pen, and then make sure you feed them properly. Once grown up they can become trusty companions in battle or even useful in production of materials. From tigers to rhinos – there are many different pets to tame and if you feed them right they might even turn into a rare version of that animal.”