StellarHub Review – Crew-Focused Colony Building

<p><em>StellarHub<&sol;em> is a space station building simulator that allows players to study the smallest details of crew statistics&period; The game isn&&num;8217&semi;t simply about expanding your station and avoiding disasters&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s about giving the right job to a crew member and managing their stress&comma; depression&comma; and well-being&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the surface level&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s your average colony building simulator&period; You start with a simple hub and expand the station by building and attaching up to 30 different modules&period; Resources like energy&comma; oxygen&comma; money&comma; and food must be carefully managed&period; Like other civilization sim games&comma; disasters can happen&period; Meteors can strike your space station and pirates can attack&period; However&comma; the disasters are easily mitigated by leveling up defense systems&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When you want to do something like increase station defenses&comma; you select the research topic from an enormous skill tree&period; The tree has 12 different branches&comma; ranging from tourism to astrofarming&period; It takes a substantial amount of time to research and unlock all of the available research topics&comma; but most of them are necessary for furthering the development of your colony&period; Tourism is badly needed in order to produce income&comma; and astrofarming increases food quality and yield&period; The research tree is a little overwhelming&comma; but the game gets most complex when it comes to personnel management&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;128944" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-128944" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-128944" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;20214508&sol;screen2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"StellarHub&comma; Casualogic" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-128944" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">StellarHub&comma; Casualogic<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The characters in <em>StellarHub <&sol;em>are elaborate and oftentimes over-demanding&period; Each crew member has a complete profile that includes statistics such as health&comma; hunger&comma; oxygen level&comma; morale&comma; strength&comma; and more&period; In addition to these characteristics&comma; the crew members can have up to 22 different professional skills&period; These include things like ore mining&comma; first aid&comma; and cleaning&period; Most characters will only have one or two of these skills&comma; but they can be improved upon or taught new skills through employment&period; If you assign someone as a janitor and they are not skilled in cleaning&comma; they will get stressed&comma; hurt themselves on the job&comma; and often leave work early&period; If one of your crew members becomes exceptionally skilled at a job&comma; he or she will demand frequent pay raises&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Crew members also have personality traits that affect their working style&period; A crew member with the &&num;8220&semi;genius&&num;8221&semi; personality trait will gain intelligence while working and may also gain XP faster&period; A meticulous employee will be half as likely to be involved in a workplace accident&period; However&comma; not all personality traits are positive&period; A melancholic employee will never have more than 60&percnt; of his total morale&comma; and a lazybones crew member may not show up to work at all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;128945" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-128945" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-128945" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;20214601&sol;screen3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"StellarHub&comma; Casualogic" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-128945" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">StellarHub&comma; Casualogic<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The most unpredictable part of <em>StellarHub <&sol;em>is how these complex crew members behave and interact with one another&period; Employees get bored&period; The game allows for creation of entertainment areas&comma; but these don&&num;8217&semi;t always help&period; Crew members may have grumpy days&period; They can get sick and infect the people they interact with&period; Sometimes&comma; the staff member assigned to the medbay won&&num;8217&semi;t actually pay attention to his clients&period; Perhaps this is meant to be realistic&comma; but it can be discouraging&period; Waiting for replacement staff members to arrive from outside the station can take a while&period; Complete societal breakdown can happen before these disgruntled employees are replaced&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You start the game with a handful of crew members&period; In order to hire more&comma; you must build a module that allows new workers to come to the space station seeking employment&period; Depending on the gameplay scenario you choose&comma; these new employees are generally varied when it comes to personality traits and skills&period; If a batch of lazy&comma; unskilled workers arrive and you decide not to take a chance on them&comma; you have to wait quite a while for the next bunch&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s realistic&comma; but discouraging&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;128946" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-128946" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-128946" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;20214647&sol;screen7&period;jpg" alt&equals;"StellarHub&comma; Casualogic" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-128946" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">StellarHub&comma; Casualogic<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The learning curve is steep&period; With so many different building options available and a complex worker system&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s recommended that you complete two tutorials when playing for the first time&period; Be warned&colon; the tutorials are long&comma; and they can be wordy&period; Even when sped up to the maximum speed&comma; I felt like I needed to invest a significant amount of time into the tutorials&period; This would have been okay if I could save the game and quit partway through&comma; but the save icon wasn&&num;8217&semi;t available at any point of the tutorials&period; This is especially bad while the game is still working on fixing all of the bugs&period; I ran out of oxygen during my first tutorial and had to start from scratch&period; During my second tutorial&comma; the game crashed and I had to begin again&period; Offering a save option during tutorials could prevent a lot of frustration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Deep down&comma; <em>StellarHub<&sol;em> has some interesting ideas about colony building and worker behavior&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s priced right for the features available &lpar;&dollar;8&period;99 on Steam&rpar;&period; However&comma; it follows the standard colony-building pattern and offers little more than character complexity&period; As an indie game&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a good start&period; The development team is in constant communication with players on Steam&comma; regularly updating and improving the game&period; Nevertheless&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s lacking a unique gameplay feature or mechanic to make it stand out from the competition&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC review copy of <em>StellarHub<&sol;em> was provided by Casualogic for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;