Where would you place the thresholds for early, mid and late-game?

[Tobruk]

In response to this comment in my OP about the most interesting part of the game:

 

[0xFADE]

I think it all follows that type of maslow's hierarchy of needs as much as can be approximated by this game.

Food and oxygen stability changes over the entire time of the game except perhaps super late game.  You will have to build more food and oxygen production when you take on more dupes.

Something like this:

Needs stability: food/oxygen

Resource stability: water/oil/metal

Indulgence stability: Projects that you never really had to do in the first place, like regolith melting.

[mathturtle]

16 minutes ago, 0xFADE said:

Food and oxygen stability changes over the entire time of the game except perhaps super late game.  You will have to build more food and oxygen production when you take on more dupes.

True but I think oxygen stability in the sense of being out of early game is about having a build that uses common resources and can be expanded/copied when taking more dupes.  Algae is not common enough to count since it runs out so quick. On the other hand oxygen from rust or water can be scaled to 20+ dupes pretty easily. (And since I took a colony of 16 to cycle 700 or so before running out of rust or salt I consider rust deoxidizers mid-game setups).

[0xFADE]

Resource stability would also include heat.  You can let your heat get out of hand after stabilizing oxygen that can lead to you losing all your food production.

[Mastermindx]

I'd say the early game for me happens when I transition away from manual generators and start using only "resource-based" generators in a sustainable way. (i,e, I have enough reserve + production to expect to last 200+ cycle). That's what allows to really expend the industries.

Midgame ends would be after getting sufficient renewable source for the critical elements (Water, oxygen, natural gas). A cooling system is also required, but since most source of water will need to be cooled (Cool slush geyser and polluted water vents being the exceptions), the cooling system is usually implicitly included in that phase for me. A volcano might be required if you are running mostly on coal... Then again, mineral source are so plentiful that taming a volcano might be considered more late game.

Late game would probably be space material, expending the automatic machine supplying, the petroleum cookers...  All the stuff that we don't need, but still make because...well... we can!

[yoakenashi]

@Tobruk isn’t ending mid-game and starting end-game the same thing? I’ve only ever heard of people talking about three phases early, mid, late.

[mathmanican]

Early game ends when the same weird thing happens twice.

Mid game ends when I can reliably recreate said weird thing.

Starting late game equates to the creation of a monstrosity or equivalent to utilize said weird thing. 

My ONI game has two win conditions: (1) devs either eliminate weird thing or (2) said weird thing becomes common place in all english speaking forums.

[Gurgel]

Early-game ends when I have food, oxygen and temperature, solved for a longer time. Mid-game ends when I have food, oxygen and temperature solved permanently.

Basically, in early-game, I have to pay attention carefully, in mid-game, I can let the colony run a while by itself (several hours) and in end-game, I can let the colony run unattended forever.

As a result, none of the options in the poll work for me.

[mathturtle]

9 hours ago, Gurgel said:

Early-game ends when I have food, oxygen and temperature, solved for a longer time.

Admittedly I was thinking of the "easy" three maps Terra, Verdante, Arboria when I answered the poll.  On those three maps I consider temperature a mid-game problem, because you typically are going to suffocate/starve long before you roast.  On other maps I agree with your definition for the end of early game.

[TheMule]

On 7/12/2020 at 5:37 AM, Gurgel said:

Early-game ends when I have food, oxygen and temperature, solved for a longer time. Mid-game ends when I have food, oxygen and temperature solved permanently.

Definitely this.

I might add to my midgame goals, to have the labor, the power, the resources to take on very large projects w/o waiting for ages.

Meaning - e.g. - you could deploy a full space shield + regolith removal system + 200% scanners in a very reasonable time (and have the power to operate it), with resources left to build a few rockets.

By that I don't mean that's the only way to do space. Maybe you rushed it and already have one silo with 6 doors 1 scanner only since cycle 80.

The point is not how you do space, the point is that after midgame you should be able to do that. Or to build a huge 10kg/s sour gas boiler with all the generators, again in a timely fashion.

[KittenIsAGeek]

I can't really take the poll, as my benchmarks aren't listed for all fields.  I'm kinda similar to @Gurgel in my objectives.

Early game is while I'm trying to survive.  Once I have food/air somewhat stabilized, I consider myself entering the mid-game.  Mid-game usually ends around the time that I've completely stabilized my colony and have started working on other tasks, such as space exploration or designing weird machines.