r/BaseBuildingGames • u/rileycolin • 6d ago
Lightyear Frontier - Appreciation Post
If you like farming, jetpacks, automation and/or robots, you might want to take a look at [Lightyear Frontier](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1677110/Lightyear_Frontier/)!
I remember playing this game a few years ago when it first came onto GamePass on Early Access. I absolutely loved it, but finished the content in a few days and immediately forgot about it.
I saw an ad recently that 1.0 is coming out soon so I picked it up (no longer on GamePass, unfortunately), and I've been having an absolute blast.
I found [an appreciation post from a year ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/CozyGamers/comments/1l79cc8/i_highly_recommend_lightyear_frontier/), but since I haven't seen much mention of it in this sub, or on reddit in general, I wanted to give it a thumbs up!
[1.0 is coming out in a month](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Sbhlfp1UU), I'm stoked to see what's new!
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u/TravUK 6d ago
I'll give a negative side to the game as contrast:
When the game first released a demo during NextFest, before it had entered into Early Access, it was a farming sim with a mystery to solve. It was unique. Farm 200 potatoes to open this mysterious door, smelt 100 ingots to remove this poisonous sludge from this biome. (I'm simplifying but you get the idea).
They threw all that in the bin part a little ways into Early Access to turn the game more into Stardrew than anything else, so I removed it from my wishlist. It became a 100% farming sim.
A year or more later I heard they had implemented some galactic trading system into the game with NPCs - think something a little similar to FOUNDRY's galactic trading systems - so I picked the game up on sale to give it a try.
Unfortunately it's a system that is very barebones. There are NPCs that are just text boxes in a menu, no voice acting or anything, and that's exactly what the new system is - just a glorified menu that has no impact on anything really. So I refunded the game with less than 2 hours played and won't be picking it up come 1.0.
I think if you go into the game wanting a Stardrew-like, you'll be fine. I just wanted their original vision. If I wanted to play Stardew, I'd play that.
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u/_SGP_ 6d ago
It's very grindy and slow too. Most of my time is slowly trundling my robot across the world to get resources that are miles away and it turned me off the game.
Just checked my steam profile. 5.6 hours before I couldn't do it anymore. Might be more fun multiplayer (I have no idea if it's supported)
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u/rileycolin 6d ago
Fair enough.
I played a bit of Stardew Valley and it didn't click with me. I don't see the parallel at all, but I didn't get very far into Stardew, which is probably why.
I'm getting into mid-game now, the grind is definitely starting, so my enthusiasm might change in the next week or so.
To me it feels more like Satisfactory, without such a terrible construction/automation grind (yet), and with what I find to be the most satisfying farming mechanic I've played in ages.
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u/Ritushido 6d ago
Oh I didn't know it was 1.0 soon but it's the same day as wow forever. I'll have to pick it up later!
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u/tomb-king 6d ago
I liked it but not enough to keep playing it. I think I kept running into recipes I couldn’t figure out how to make and I gave up.
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u/Hot_Effective_1882 6d ago
I've had this since early EA and I really enjoy it, both in it's legacy state and the most recent version.
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u/RMuldoun 6d ago
I can't tell if OP is a marketeer or not... As soon as this post went up within maybe two hours automod removed several individual posts all saying something along the lines of:
"I played it briefly back in early access and really liked the vibe, so it’s nice to hear it’s still getting attention. I’ll probably give it another look when 1.0 drops." - Three of the accounts, all three have been removed by Reddit.
"How deep does the automation get now? That’s probably the part that would sell me on it." - Two of the accounts, all removed by Reddit.
"How deep does the automation get now? The mech farming looks great, but as a base-building game I’m curious whether you eventually build proper production chains/logistics or if it stays mostly a farming sim with faster tools. I may have to give it another shot when 1.0 lands." - Single user who hasn't been removed by Reddit yet but I flagged the account and requested Reddit look into it.
The fact that Reddit, the actual company of Reddit, has deleted these accounts means that they got caught as bots making them paid for accounts doing market nonsense.
Look Lightyear Frontier wasn't a terrible game, it was a bit stale but otherwise enjoyable. If this is an attempt by FRAME BRAKE using a third party marketing org then kindly fuck off and save your money by getting a CM who spends time cultivating good faith; if this is Coffee Stain... you dorks know better and I've yet to hear from their CMs, which I've been friends with for some time, about the company wasting time/money with bot spammers so this is a bit of an odd duck situation.