Surviving Mars now has another trailer and pre-orders open up with three different editions

Well, I'm not going to break my preorder policy for this one! And, to be honest, it sounds fun, but it looks like there are just *too many* fantasist elements for me to like the game. My opinion might change after launch, of course.

Also... Is that a steam notification sound at [1:21](https://youtu.be/7Js-9zMQ1oQ?t=81)? :P It made me triple-check that I didn't have steam already open.

While they have me intrigued, the trailers have not hyped me up to the point of needing a pre-order. While I expect Paradox to faithfully support linux in this case, IMO too little is known about actual gameplay to avoid a possible bust at launch. That is why pre-order is off the table.

Recently, Railway Empire was a game that I enjoyed the trailer and it looked like a good game to buy. I had it on my wishlist and then it was released. However, the game never lived up to it, and had many negative reviews on launch. Railway Empire is now completely off my radar, but may be re-considered if the devs fix the AI and other problems. While this is a completely different game, it illustrates why pre-orders are a bad idea... regardless of the linux support issue.

In addition, the "Season Pass" approach annoys me. An expansion pack used to be done after a game was a success to give fans a little more. (Think Diablo I & II and the original Starcraft; even the Command and Conquer series used to do expansions right IMO) Now it seems to give you an incomplete game with the idea of stringing fans along to have them pay more money overall.

And when a game has pre-planned expansions it usually is incomplete, if development on a certain feature will not be complete by a deadline, they just skip adding the feature until the next expansion. And this can happen easily.

I'll wait for the game is done before I consider buying.

Relevant topic regarding Paradox interactive: [https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/3188/page=1#r14336](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/3188/page=1#r14336)

#preordered.

when a game has pre-planned expansions it usually is incomplete, if development on a certain feature will not be complete by a deadline, they just skip adding the feature until the next expansion. And this can happen easily.

I'll wait for the game is done before I consider buying.

You'll be waiting a long, long time then. Paradox games are known to be updated for many years after release. CK2, for example, is 6 years old and is still getting major updates regularly.

Finally, it's not like they are holding back existing content just so they can charge you more later. Somebody comes up with an idea, stuff nobody even thought of, and it becomes a major update years down the line. Again, for example, Stellaris is getting it's 2.0 update in just a few days which is basically a whole new game. They could easily release it as "Stellaris 2" and charge full price for it, but personally I much prefer this continuously updated development approach that keeps a game alive for a decade or more.


Last edited by callcifer on 13 Feb 2018 at 7:40 pm UTC

Well this is Paradox title, of course I will buy it.

I didn't think I'd be that interested, but the trailer made me think it could be fun. I'll be checking out reviews. :)

That looks really cool. While not preordering and knowing Paradox, I'm pretty sure I will have to pick it at some time.

Looks fantastic indeed. Love how close you can get to the various objects and characters. Such details (!) means something!

At that price I want to see a few lets play videos of it before I buy.

Relevant topic regarding Paradox interactive: [https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/3188/page=1#r14336](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/3188/page=1#r14336)

This. "I can try to comment in a future episode. Sadly Linux is less than a percent of the sales and keeps dwindling. SteamOS didn't turn out to be what we all hoped. The Linux community needs to grow or spend more to stay viable."

These great, entertaining, games get a Linux version and then Linux gamers find excuses not to buy them. If we don't support companies like Paradox that release quality bug free games with Day 1 Linux support, we've only got ourselves to blame if they give up on Linux.

These great, entertaining, games get a Linux version and then Linux gamers find excuses not to buy them.

"This game isn't something I'd enjoy" seems like a damn good excuse to me. Paradox is a great developer, but our community might very well be too small to support their particular niche at this point. I do hope they'll manage to keep supporting Linux though.

These great, entertaining, games get a Linux version and then Linux gamers find excuses not to buy them.

"This game isn't something I'd enjoy" seems like a damn good excuse to me. Paradox is a great developer, but our community might very well be too small to support their particular niche at this point. I do hope they'll manage to keep supporting Linux though.

Absolutely. No one should buy something that doesn't interest them. Supporting a publisher that does not create games that you are interested in is futile. (Note: I'm talking in general here, not specifically about Paradox or Surviving Mars.) The publishers creating items that you are interested in are the ones that should be supported.

The concept of being altruistic and supporting devs for supporting linux is a valid reason to buy something... But, just remember it goes both ways... How many devs are willing to support linux for a reason other than profit?

These great, entertaining, games get a Linux version and then Linux gamers find excuses not to buy them.

"This game isn't something I'd enjoy" seems like a damn good excuse to me. Paradox is a great developer, but our community might very well be too small to support their particular niche at this point. I do hope they'll manage to keep supporting Linux though.

Absolutely. No one should buy something that doesn't interest them. Supporting a publisher that does not create games that you are interested in is futile. (Note: I'm talking in general here, not specifically about Paradox or Surviving Mars.) The publishers creating items that you are interested in are the ones that should be supported.

The concept of being altruistic and supporting devs for supporting linux is a valid reason to buy something... But, just remember it goes both ways... How many devs are willing to support linux for a reason other than profit?

Of course I agree that if the game doesn't interest you then it doesn't warrant your hard earned money, but I'm talking about the smaller niggles that some talk about, no game will be perfect. There is another big discussion in the Stellaris article about supporting the developers that support us, if we don't buy the games they make for us (at little to no profit it seems), they'll simply stop making them, as a small community we have to vote with our dollars a little bit more to make the future viable and support the Devs that go out of their way to release quality, bug free games with Day 1 Linux support.

when a game has pre-planned expansions it usually is incomplete, if development on a certain feature will not be complete by a deadline, they just skip adding the feature until the next expansion. And this can happen easily.

I'll wait for the game is done before I consider buying.

You'll be waiting a long, long time then. Paradox games are known to be updated for many years after release. CK2, for example, is 6 years old and is still getting major updates regularly.

Finally, it's not like they are holding back existing content just so they can charge you more later. Somebody comes up with an idea, stuff nobody even thought of, and it becomes a major update years down the line. Again, for example, Stellaris is getting it's 2.0 update in just a few days which is basically a whole new game. They could easily release it as "Stellaris 2" and charge full price for it, but personally I much prefer this continuously updated development approach that keeps a game alive for a decade or more.

The game is early access. I buy games when they're finished.

Pre-order available on GOG.com! With Linux release of course.

[https://www.gog.com/news/preorder_surviving_mars](https://www.gog.com/news/preorder_surviving_mars)

After watching some youtube videos of the game I feel that this game will be quite fun, so I bought it.