Highly Enjoyable, it's a shame that most people probably give up on it because of its difficulty. The tutorial might be able to describe the needed resources, but I think playing through it is the only way to realize how important these resources are!
Resources:
RESEARCH POINTS = accumulated by gathering Minerals. Colonists automatically gather minerals when one of their jobs is to gather them. Minerals take a short time to be processed into Research Points. Research Points are produced at the Control Center or Research Building. Building Research Buildings near large clusters of Minerals is effective. Research Points can be traded in for other Resources for emergencies, but you should avoid doing so if you can, since it becomes more expensive the more you Order resources with Research Points. Research Points are needed to build, hire Colonists, upgrade buildings and lay cables and pipes.
METAL = required for building. Areas (tiles) with metal have an arrow-looking icon over them. To harvest them, build Metal Extractors over the appropriate areas. Metal Extractors can harvest up to 15 Metal, at which point it will stop harvesting unless a colonists removes some Metal from it. The more Metal-containing tiles covered by the building, the more Metal can be harvested. Once depleted of Metal, it is good to demolish the Metal Extractor to recover some resources and save energy.
COMPONENTS = needed for building and laying Energy Cables and Water Pipes. Created at Component Factories. Colonists transfer Metal from Control Center, Metal Extractor or Storage to the Component Factory, which processes the Metal into Components. Each cable or pipe costs 1 Component to lay, so your base should be designed to minimize Component usage, especially on missions where Metal is scarce.
FOOD = essential for Colonists' survival. Created at Hydroponics, which require Water and Energy to operate. Stored at Resource Center or Storage, but Colonists generally prefer to transfer them to the Living Quarters right away. Food is consumed by Colonists at the Living Quarters when hungry. Consider how quickly do you need to build Hydroponics, depending on how much Food you start with. A single Hydroponics should generally be able to sustain 7 Colonists, unless they have negative perks that cause them to become hungry more quickly.
OXYGEN = essential for Colonists' survival. Produced at the Oxygen Station, which requires Water and Energy to operate. Stored at Command Center or Storage. Oxygen is consumed by the Colonists, wherever it is stored, unlike Food, which is brought to the Living Quarters to be consumed. Consider how quickly you should build the Oxygen Station, depending on how much Oxygen you start with.
WATER = required by some buildings to operate. Hydroponics and Oxygen Station require water to produce Food and Oxygen respectively. Certain tiles detected by the Geo-radar contain Water Icons. Build Water Pumps on the appropriate area to harvest Water. The more Water tiles are covered by the Water Pump, the greater the maximum water can be distributed. Water is distributed through other buildings through pipes.
ENERGY = required by all buildings, except the Command Center and Generator, to operate. The Command Center and Generator produce Energy, which can be distributed to other buildings via Cables. If a Dust Storm or Earthquake damages the Generator, all buildings connected to it will cease operations.
COLONISTS:
Colonists have 3 Ranks, with higher ranks costing more Research Points to buy. The higher the rank, the higher health and more positive perks. Perks can be negative or positive, with the lowest ranking Colonists coming with 3 Negative perks.
JOBS
Colonists can do one or more of the following: Build/Repair, Collect Minerals, Carry Resources, or Defend the Colony. The first 2 and the last one are self-explanatory, but the 3rd one I want to discuss a bit. When you lay down a pipe, cable, or building, Colonists must first carry resources from another building to the pipe/cable/building to be built. One might consider actually building a Storage building next to areas where resources are gathered BUT SINCE BUILDINGS THAT PRODUCE/HARVEST RESOURCES CAN HOLD UP TO SEVERAL RESOURCES, STORAGE BUILDINGS ARE GENERALLY IGNORED, SINCE COLONISTS CAN AND WILL DIRECTLY GET RESOURCES FROM PRODUCTION/HARVESTING BUILDINGS INSTEAD OF STORING RESOURCES IN STORAGE BUILDINGS.
Colonists with the "Defend the Colony" Job enabled will attack enemies that enter within a certain range of them, unless they are carrying out another job. Colonists will generally pursue fleeing enemies, which can be suicidal if they follow enemies all the way to their base, where enemies can heal up and the counterattack. To counteract this, LEFT-CLICK THE COLONIST, SELECT TRACTOR BEAM (HAND ICON) TO LIFT UP THE COLONIST. LEFT-CLICK AGAIN TO DROP HIM, PRESUMABLY AT A SAFE PLACE. The Tractor Beam can also be used offensively, to quickly gang up on an enemy building, or to quickly drop off Colonists at a nearby Generator to recharge so they can leap back into the fray immediately.
Overall, pretty fun game. The bright blue font can be a bit of a pain to look at, and the fact that cables and pipes have to be connected at a very specific ports in front of a building makes creating a visually-pleasing base difficult, but I truly admire the amount of work put into this. Of course, as I said, it seems that most people don't really have the time to get a good grasp on how this game works, but I encourage you to continue making something like this. First time I enjoyed an RTS here at Newgrounds after a very long time. Kudos to you!
