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The Universim is now officially available in Early Access on Steam

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The Universim from developer Crytivo just entered Early Access today and as promised it does include the Linux build. It's been quite a long road to get here, with the Kickstarter being succesful all the way back in 2014 with nearly $400K.

Note: Copy personally purchased a long time ago from their own store.

Brief launch issues aside, with the game not actually being available when it was supposed to today they managed to get that quickly sorted so now more people can dive in and take a look.

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The Universim is "a new breed of God Game" and while it does have elements of that, with you having special powers like the ability to spawn a tornado, change the season and so on it also feels a bit like a city builder. Like other god games, you don't have direct control over your nuggets (people) but you will be directing them to build specific things and direct their development with research.

For those who like a bit of hand-holding, you might want to wait as it pretty much dumps you on the planet as soon as the intro is done. As a quick tip to help prevent some frustration, to actually save the game you need to build the Archive in-game building and it needs to have someone assigned to it.

I will have more thoughts up when it's further along in developement and I will continue to check on it with each new update. It's promising and I like where they're going with it so far. They have a lot of grand plans for it, I just hope they don't keep re-doing things as it's already been in development for a long time overall. If you want to read more about their future plans, check this post.

Note: If the Linux version crashes during loading for you, it's missing the "libsteam_api.so" file. If you copy it from another game into the same folder as the executable (the installed folder) it will work. I have reported this to the developer already and they said they will fix "asap".

I also seem to have to kill the game sometimes when I leave, as it doesn't always stop the process fully.

Find it on Humble Store and Steam. Also available directly from their official site. Weirdly, it's also on GOG and their homepage banner mentions Linux, but the store page for it does not. I've reached out to GOG to clear it up either way.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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thewho Aug 29, 2018
Mix of Settlers, Populous and Black&White?
beko Aug 29, 2018
Quoting: Colombo2. Connecting basic game features to progress in game is stupid. "Hey, you can quit the game from main menu. But you need to build building X to get to main menu!" It is OK for some minor things, like skins, unlocking music or so, but basic functions should not require any progress. Especially save or pause function, which are so much important for people who need to stop game at exact time or stop it momentarily to do something different.
Nowadays I'm already happy to get this without a DLC ?
Chronarius Aug 29, 2018
Quoting: tuubiWhat's with the sighing? They make it quite clear that if you've set Linux as your only platform in the store preferences, your wishlist counts for Linux. There's no ambiguity. They could make the store filters more discoverable or even change the default based on platform, but I'm not sure that would be a popular change.

No, that is not what they are saying.

QuoteIf a user only has one platform filter selected in their Steam store preferences, adding a game to their wishlist will result in it being specially reported to the developer in a new platform-specific breakdown of the wishlist report

Which means the game you have added with "Linux only" are reported to the developers as wishlisted for Linux. But doesn't effect your existing wishlist at all. I guess you will have to redo the whole wishlist with "Linux only" setting, and even then you can only hope that Valve gets their numbers right.

QuoteOnly show me games which support one of these operating systems

If you select Linux only, then you only see games in the store, which are supporting Linux already. But what about non-Linux games now? I want them to count for Linux as well, if I add them. But how should I do that if I can't see them anymore? Maybe searching and adding them might still work. But IMHO this is way to complicated and will result in wrong numbers. Wouldn't it be better to count it for Linux if I add it with a running Linux-Client?
Eike Aug 29, 2018
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Quoting: ChronariusIf you select Linux only, then you only see games in the store, which are supporting Linux already. But what about non-Linux games now? I want them to count for Linux as well, if I add them. But how should I do that if I can't see them anymore? Maybe searching and adding them might still work.

It does.
tuubi Aug 29, 2018
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Quoting: ChronariusNo, that is not what they are saying.

QuoteIf a user only has one platform filter selected in their Steam store preferences, adding a game to their wishlist will result in it being specially reported to the developer in a new platform-specific breakdown of the wishlist report

Which means the game you have added with "Linux only" are reported to the developers as wishlisted for Linux. But doesn't effect your existing wishlist at all. I guess you will have to redo the whole wishlist with "Linux only" setting, and even then you can only hope that Valve gets their numbers right.

I think you might be making a mountain out of a molehill. Why would anyone gaming exclusively on Linux have collected a large wishlist of non-Linux games and had the filter set to show Windows games as well? And if you have just switched and want to make a clean break, you'll most likely want to clean out your old Windows wishlist anyway.

BTW: The actual data developers see in the wishlist report for their game gets updated daily and is likely to reflect any changes to user platforms. I think what you're overanalysing here is just a case of poor wording.
Chronarius Aug 29, 2018
Quoting: tuubiWhy would anyone gaming exclusively on Linux have collected a large wishlist of non-Linux games and had the filter set to show Windows games as well?

Maybe to show the developer there is a demand for a Linux port?
tuubi Aug 29, 2018
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Quoting: Chronarius
Quoting: tuubiWhy would anyone gaming exclusively on Linux have collected a large wishlist of non-Linux games and had the filter set to show Windows games as well?

Maybe to show the developer there is a demand for a Linux port?
That didn't make sense before platform-specific wishlisting was announced, and in the announcement it was made very clear that you should set the store filter accordingly.
Draconicrose Aug 29, 2018
I've been keeping my eye on this game for a while now. It seems to fill in that tiny niche that the Black and White games used to occupy. I can't wait to see what it looks like when fully developed.
aristorias Aug 29, 2018
So it is an early access title, means the game is not finished and in this case it appears that there is some more work needed. But what the developer "Crytivo" has finished already is an overprized DLC. This is the kind of thing I totally want to support ... NOT.
Chronarius Aug 31, 2018
Quoting: aristoriasSo it is an early access title, means the game is not finished and in this case it appears that there is some more work needed. But what the developer "Crytivo" has finished already is an overprized DLC. This is the kind of thing I totally want to support ... NOT.

Hmmm... about 5 Bucks for an Art-Book with 150 pages, a thousand high quality art assets and a soundtrack with 34 tracks. Nothing overpriced here. Have you maybe misinterpreted the Collectors Bundle as DLC? :)
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