Tbh, I first hesitated to play this, because at first sight from the screenshots it looked to me like it was just basically a modsoup including pipeworks with different textures. But this is not the case, not at all!
While there is a modified version of pipeworks included, part of its mechanics were modified in such a way that it makes a very different experience (they are triggered once per second instead of using mesecons signals, which makes automation much more resource).
Well, that was maybe not a good way to start a review.
TL;DR: This game has space, automation, and much cool stuff.
You start on a single node (the core) with a questbook that gives you instructions on what stuff you can explore next. You might wonder, don't you need an atmosphere to breath? Well, there is actually an atmosphere, just not one made of air: The music, the skybox, the stylized gui, the particles, and the occasional meteroids (the meteroids in this game are so well made! great mechanic! and great use of particles!) make up this atmosphere.
In the beginning, this plays like an idle game: You click on your cookie core, build matter generators for more matter, and click more on your core to provide them with power. At some point, moving the items around, and no longer the amount of resources, becomes the bottleneck, so you start automating things. Then crafting becomes the bottleneck (recipes involve unstackable tools), so semi-automate it with expensive autocrafters. Things start out expensive, but later they become so cheap that you mindlessly throws stacks of it into the trash, as expected from an automation game.
Throughout playing, I encountered more and more exciting stuff to play around with, including, but not limited to, machines, different types of item transport, habitats, CO2 pipes, programming, possibly meteorite cyclotrons (not done yet), planets, or jumpdrives. The coolness factor of these is high. There's plenty of content, and I haven't managed to play it through yet.
Now to the negative aspects. If you look close enough, you can of course always find some small things. For example, there are some typos in the questbook, many machines don't make sound, or make an annoying sound, luacontrollers (not the mesecons luacontrollers, btw, there's a different kind of luacontroller here) near the core can't use the chat debug thing, and some things could be balanced a little better (probably hard to fix without breaking stuff). Edit: Might contain outdated information, I have to update my installation.
I also don't know if this game works well on public servers. (I've played in singleplayer, it worked well there.) (I'd expect issues from server lag, and getting spoiled by other players.)
(In case you want inspiration for new features (maybe for a successor "Skyblock One - now with more Lua"). I'd find it cool to have more use of fluids and gases in automation. Maybe a biogas plant (plant as in reactor, not plant). Or steam in habitat-like structures. Or blast furnaces making molten ore. Also, when I'll make a meteroite cyclotron and find out that there's nothing that I get out of it, I will be disappointed (but not surprised). (I can expect that the meteroite will be so fast that it will make a black hole, and if I do it at two places at once, it will make a wormhole, right? (Don't answer, I'll find it out.)))
Tbh, I first hesitated to play this, because at first sight from the screenshots it looked to me like it was just basically a modsoup including pipeworks with different textures. But this is not the case, not at all!
While there is a modified version of pipeworks included, part of its mechanics were modified in such a way that it makes a very different experience (they are triggered once per second instead of using mesecons signals, which makes automation much more resource). Well, that was maybe not a good way to start a review.
TL;DR: This game has space, automation, and much cool stuff.
You start on a single node (the core) with a questbook that gives you instructions on what stuff you can explore next. You might wonder, don't you need an atmosphere to breath? Well, there is actually an atmosphere, just not one made of air: The music, the skybox, the stylized gui, the particles, and the occasional meteroids (the meteroids in this game are so well made! great mechanic! and great use of particles!) make up this atmosphere.
In the beginning, this plays like an idle game: You click on your
cookiecore, build matter generators for more matter, and click more on your core to provide them with power. At some point, moving the items around, and no longer the amount of resources, becomes the bottleneck, so you start automating things. Then crafting becomes the bottleneck (recipes involve unstackable tools), so semi-automate it with expensive autocrafters. Things start out expensive, but later they become so cheap that you mindlessly throws stacks of it into the trash, as expected from an automation game.Msg too long. 1/2
2/2
Throughout playing, I encountered more and more exciting stuff to play around with, including, but not limited to, machines, different types of item transport, habitats, CO2 pipes, programming, possibly meteorite cyclotrons (not done yet), planets, or jumpdrives. The coolness factor of these is high. There's plenty of content, and I haven't managed to play it through yet.
Now to the negative aspects. If you look close enough, you can of course always find some small things. For example, there are some typos in the questbook, many machines don't make sound, or make an annoying sound, luacontrollers (not the mesecons luacontrollers, btw, there's a different kind of luacontroller here) near the core can't use the chat debug thing, and some things could be balanced a little better (probably hard to fix without breaking stuff). Edit: Might contain outdated information, I have to update my installation.
I also don't know if this game works well on public servers. (I've played in singleplayer, it worked well there.) (I'd expect issues from server lag, and getting spoiled by other players.)
(In case you want inspiration for new features (maybe for a successor "Skyblock One - now with more Lua"). I'd find it cool to have more use of fluids and gases in automation. Maybe a biogas plant (plant as in reactor, not plant). Or steam in habitat-like structures. Or blast furnaces making molten ore. Also, when I'll make a meteroite cyclotron and find out that there's nothing that I get out of it, I will be disappointed (but not surprised). (I can expect that the meteroite will be so fast that it will make a black hole, and if I do it at two places at once, it will make a wormhole, right? (Don't answer, I'll find it out.)))
It was a very good experience. Thanks!