Astronomics PREVIEW
Make contracts. Fly in, explore, extract resources. Save money for a dream. A dream worth trying for.
This is how you can briefly outline the essence of Astronomics.
As you might have guessed, this game is largely about work. Astronomics invites you to take on the role of a craftsman engaged in the extraction of minerals. But his field of activity is not typical locations for such a business, but the endless and cold space, full of asteroids.
The main character works every day for the cherished goal. He wants to earn enough money to buy a ticket home.
The entire game can be divided into two large parts: the base and space. Let’s start with the first, especially since everything starts from here as you progress.
The assistant robot will organize a short but very useful tutorial on the basics of the game. We will be taken to points of interest at the base. These are stations where we trade, repair broken equipment, equip our main robot with equipment, upgrade ships, and so on. It’s not hard to figure it out.
As you progress, the base will develop, and there are several bases here, but more on that later. To upgrade something, you’ll have to try hard first.
Our ship is docked to the corporation base. You can run along them as if they were one space when they are docked. When the mission starts, the ship will take off.
In order to fly anywhere, you need to study the star map. In fact, only the base and the asteroids that fly around it are displayed here.
Our ship has two important parameters: scanning and navigation distance. The first one means the radius in which we can see the composition of the studied (we cannot study the unstudied) classes of celestial bodies. This will help collect the necessary or most profitable resources. The pirate activity is also indicated in the description.
The jump distance is the maximum radius in which the ship can reach asteroids or a point in space.
One of the main features of the game is that the asteroids move relative to the base. And we are shown a timer – how much time exactly is left to collect resources. If you miss this timer, the ship will not fly away anywhere. But this is not certain. Over several dozen runs, it always fits in normally.
The map is not very convenient, because there are several corporation bases and they are kind of outside the visible screen. You have to take risks to open new ones. There will be seven in total, three are currently available.
When an asteroid is selected, we make a hyperjump there on the ship. At first, we have 200 fuel in the tank. The jump costs 100. It turns out that you can fly to the asteroid and back. In the future, the tank will increase and then you can clear two or more asteroids in a conventional run.
Arrived. What’s next? You won’t believe it, but inside the ship there is another ship – a shuttle. This is where we will physically fly to dig ore.
First, you have to get to the place in the mini-game. Here you just need to avoid hitting the flying rocks. If that doesn’t work, then we will repair the shuttle at the base.
Following the pointer, we arrive at the place we need. This is also an asteroid, but large enough for the shuttle to land.
Landing is an important part of the game. We must immediately figure out that the back of the shuttle goes to the maximum amount of potential resources. This is necessary in order to minimize the delivery path of the mined resources.
All the time up to this point, we run as an astronaut. But the main character here is not him.
The main role in the game is played by the main drone-resource miner, which we will run along the asteroids.
At first, this robot can do little. It has a mining tool that can grab visible resource deposits and destroy them into blocks. Then it drags these blocks into the shuttle.
When resource deposits are destroyed, small pieces of useful rock are formed. The robot also collects them in small quantities. If its backpack is full, a box with resources is created, which can also be dragged to the shuttle and handed over.
During digging, the robot runs out of battery, so from time to time you need to run inside the shuttle to recharge.
In the future, we will equip both the robot and the ships with a lot of useful things that will make digging much more fun.
In essence, our task is to use all technologies to the maximum, to most effectively clear the asteroid of resources in the allotted time. Usually, we are given 15-25 minutes for the extraction phase. It is good if we manage to load the shuttle to capacity during this time. If we extract more, we will still have to throw out some of the cargo.
Sometimes pirates will visit us on the asteroid. They will destroy our equipment and try to kill the robot. The threat is really not a joke. If you miss the place where they land, the pirates can do some damage, cause significant damage, or even lead to the failure of the entire mission. Once I couldn’t find where they would show up and they destroyed all my turrets and one delivery man. I had to pay a tidy sum for repairs and manually carry mountains of mined ore.
First, our robot can fight back with a laser, which we use to destroy the rock. Then we buy a blaster, it is many times more effective. Then protective turrets, combat armor and probably something else will open.
To sum up the game, the space miner simulator is very addictive. Digging ore is interesting. I like planning mining schemes on the fly and then building them. The timer is invigorating. This is probably one of the few games where the time limit is useful, it helps not to sit in one place for too long.
Although the game is in early access, there is enough content here. There are a lot of improvements and equipment that can be upgraded or bought.
Fights with pirates add additional interest.
In general, the game is highly recommended for all fans of grinding, upgrading, and relaxed gameplay.
