IXIONis a fascinating city-building game. This indie title mixes standard features like construction and resource management with unique features like space exploration and an epic story about warring factions and global disasters. One of the most critical resources to manage is crew trust, because if it ever drops too low, the player won’t be in charge of the spaceship Tiqqun for very long.
The key to keeping trust up in the Tiqqun isSector Stability.The spaceship contains six sectors that the player will open throughout the game, and each one has its own population with its own opinion of the administrator. If stability is positive or neutral, trust in the administrator will grow each cycle. If stability is negative, trust will drop and the workers will sometimes go on strike. This will disable buildings in the affected sector for several cycles. The only way to end strikes early is to bring the Sector Stability score back up.
RELATED:Cities: Skylines – Best Starting Maps
Unfortunately, as the game goes on, the sectors will gain permanent penalties to stability that players will have no way of removing (at least notthrough city management). However, there are a number of ways to boost stability that the player has full control over. Successfully balancing each of these factors is the key to staying in charge.
Working Conditions
Unlikeother city-building games,IXIONdoesn’t make understaffed buildings less productive than normal. Instead, the workers in an understaffed sector will work harder and cover extra shifts, but at the cost of Sector Stability and workplace safety. There are four ratings for working conditions:
The best way to avoid poor working conditions is toavoid building more work sites than the sector population can handle.Administrators have several ways to do this:
The last option will also fully refund the resources spent on construction, so there’s no penalty to redesign sectors or move buildings around.
Housing
Workers on the Tiqqun need to live somewhere, and it’s up to the administrator to provide enough housing. If the majority of a sector’s workforce is homeless, stability will go down. If every worker has a home, stability will go up. High-quality housing can improve stability even further.
For instance, if the majority of a sector’s workers live inOptimized Quartersinstead of basic Crew Quarters, the Sector Stability will get a+2instead of a +1. On the other hand, while Cell Housing can hold more workers with fewer resources, it won’t provide the same stability boost.
Cryonic Pods and Food
The primary way to add more workers inIXIONis tofind cryopods and awaken the people inside.However, administrators may want to hold off on awakening everyone as fast as possible, because the Tiqqun needs to produce enough food to let everyone eat. Starving workers will lower stability (and cause them to start to die), so keeping a few hundred workers asleep can sound like a good idea.
On the other hand, the workers on Tiqqun are anxious to get their friends and family out of stasis. As such, if over 250 cryonic pods are sitting on the station, it will penalize every sector’s stability.
Memorials and Alternative Life Centers
TheIXIONtech tree includes several buildings that are dedicated to boosting Sector Stability. The Memorials tech gives three parks that can be added to each sector. While they take up space and use plenty of resources, theygive +1 stability each and don’t cost any energy or workers.
Alternative Life Centers have a power and worker cost, but they take up less space and have no building limit. Like the memorials, theygive +1 stability each.Both types of building also have upgrades that can boost the stability gain even further once researched.
Exploration Disasters
Space is a dangerous place, and bad things can happen to the science ships sent to explore it. A bad decision can lead to crewmate deaths, and in some cases, the whole team will die. When this happens, it can give the Tiqqun a permanent penalty to every Sector Stability. As such, wise administrators should save often, and in separate slots, when exploring.
DLS Policies
The Tier 2 tech ring contains a building called the DLS Center.By building one in each sector, administrators get a free +1 stabilityand can enact several policies that apply to the individual sector. In general, each policy can improve productivity or resource management at the cost of stability, or they can increase stability by lowering productivity. However, each policy change can only take placeevery 10 or 15 cycles.
Keeping everyone inIXIONhappy and healthy is a difficult task, but that’s whatcity-building games are all about. A good administrator will have to juggle many factors to keep stability up, but that’s what it takes to bring humanity safely to a new home.
MORE:Why Xbox Did Not Have a Major Presence at The Game Awards
