Review: Terraforming Mars

I really enjoyed playing the beta. Game is amazing (TFM), app is slick but minus some key features you might want for multiplayer, and some QoL improvement opportubities

Probably mentioned above but I don’t seem to see a high score list?

I did manage to win my 4th try. Got water-splitting very early which made oxygen production a snap as well as a card that increased heat production by 7. The rest was a cakewalk.

Big update on iOS. The patch notes seem to address our biggest complaints.

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Only one I don’t see listed is the fix for choosing cards out of order.

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Also not clear whether it is still only the last player that gets to see the score in a multiplayer game … but certainly yes, encouraging …

I had to sign back in to Asmodee’s servers, so be aware of that; you may be sitting around waiting for turns for a while if you’re not actually signed in…

There also was (on the Steam version, apparently, so probably this one too) a bug on cards that force you to lower production from somebody in order to play the card.

What it’s supposed to be is that if nobody else has that production, you’d have to lower your own. Apparently, the game lets you choose somebody who has no production.

That’s not mentioned there, but the Protected Habitats bug is huge.

Maybe I’ll actually get this soon!

Edit: Oh, and still no replays, but I guess you can’t have everything.

I can’t seem to load up my game with @JammaTal right now. It just sits in the loading screen for a few minutes. I suppose it is possible that it might load it i wait longer, but 2-3 minutes is about the limit of my patience.

Did you update? Perhaps the update broke it.

seems like old running games were broken by the update.
i’m sitting on the never ending loading screen too.
and after a long time i’m disconnected from the server.
sigh :disappointed_relieved:
game was fun. fast turns. well done, @Mirefox!

but not unusual with massive updates.

just now in a fresh game with two players on PC.
has not been my turn yet, so i can’t confirm a notification or badge.
fingers crossed.

confirmative!
notifications and badges are working now on iOS.
names in games, shown event cards and faster loading times as well.

this update came very fast :+1::+1:
the force was with them :sparkles:

i can sense definite determination to iron out all wrinkles.

Heh. Playing solitaire, if you finish in gen 13, it says this the last generation, but continues on to 14 anyway.

Sounds promising. Is the consensus that it might be worth buying now?

It doesn’t rise to the level of greatness that we know is possible thanks to CGE, Playdek, Dire Wolf, etc., but it is playable now. There are still some head-scratching design decisions but those I can live with. I have read about certain cards possibly not working correctly over on BGG, but that I cannot confirm or deny.

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There was one I noticed pre-patch that is definitely working now, but that might just be because cost reductions are now visible and I wasn’t familiar with the values.

I think it is worth buying with the caveat that - whilst perfectly playable async - there are still missing elements (to be rated as Quality Of Life or Fundamental depending on your attitude). The tipping point was the recent update that showed awareness of some of the problems and a willingness to fix. Of course, No guarantee of further improvements - just a cause for hope.

Meanwhile the implementation of the gameplay - with myriad helpful aspects - remains excellent. I haven’t hit a gameplay bug in 10 games (I thought I did but it turned out to be me that was faulty) but I can believe that some edge case issues exist.

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FWIW, I am loving the solitaire mode. I am enjoying it for all the reasons I thought I would (doesn’t get bogged down, I like engine generation, etc). Just won back to back games for the first time, but I wasn’t sure if I would win the second one until about Gen 12.

Anything else remotely like this on iOS? Someone mentioned Agricola, but I could never get into it.

Why does solitaire mode allow you to place forests after Gen. 14 ends if they don’t count toward terraforming completion?

Forests are worth points. Each forest is worth one additional point in final scoring. Also each city adjacent to a forest scores for each adjacent forest. If you’ve got a good plant engine you can crank out some more points in the bonus production phase after the end of the final generation.

I know, it’s just weird to me you get to produce that one thing.