Various questions and thoughts on play

from Offworld Forums

Hey guys/ladies. Sup.  ^_^

Been playing this game for about a week and loving the hell out of it, especially when I play with friends and we "temp team-up" against the AI and then turn on each other in an epic battle of maxing production and making the loud cashbag sounds from SHIFT-selling.

Figured it was time to get some of my thoughts out on "paper" and see what the devs thought. Since I can't access the "Founders Feedback" subforum yet (see Support subforum for my post on that), I'm not sure if some of my questions/concerns have an already stated answer.

  • What are the energy generation rates (as percentages of normal) for Very Low <-> Very High for solar panels, and Very Weak <-> Very Strong for wind turbines?
  • In general I see very few occurrences of Trace deposits (they tend to be Lows, with Mediums and Highs sprinkled about). Since it's only 25% of a Low (according to the rules), there's almost no reason to go after them even if the closest Low is blimp ride away.
  • If a player builds a production facility away from the colony that requires materials to be shipped from the colony to it, the colony waits until 50 units are available. Would this preclude the inclusion of a "Request Supply" button for the building as a companion to "Ship Everything"?
  • What is "Auto-Supply" and what is the benefit of using it / turning it off?
  • Does a Water Pump that is powered via the Cold Fusion patent (water is consumed instead of energy) actually result in a net output? Does the patent render the colony unable to power itself via conventional means if the player wishes/ gets their water supply neutralized?
  • When the 6:00AM auction is a plot, it seems like new resources are created (one map I played had almost no iron, and every new plot auction was for a Low deposit that didn't exist before). What rules are in place to determine what type of auction happens, and what resource is picked?
  • Does each type of colony have its own "version" of the buildings, in addition to just art asset differences? I imagine there is because:
    • When opening the Build tab, it's much longer than a single icon square
    • Expansive buildings have a reduced Steel cost and Scavenger buildings have Carbon instead
    • Colony spaces extract 25% of any resource under them (except for Robotic which extracts at 50%)
    • Scav buildings double extraction rate if resource is Trace (although see above)
    • Do Robotic buildings (colony and the like) only use electric blimps? If I take over a Robotic colony do only the Robotic building blimps still run on energy or does that carry to all owned structures?
    • When I buyout a colony that has patents/engineering upgrades, do they get applied to all buildings owned or just the original acquired colony?
  • Offworld Market: How are the prices determined for each commodity, and are they static? If they are static it would likely be beneficial to ship the one that is the cheapest locally (or something similar). And sometimes that price seems rather low (possibly below local value) for the benefit. Having the tooltip indicate the offworld price might allow for some shrewder decisions here.
  • If I obtain patents/upgrades and the Lab is destroyed, do I lose the patents/upgrades?
  • The Pleasure Dome is merely a $ generator. Might it get similar treatment to the other buildings in that it can be tweaked/modified for certain purposes, or is it strictly the simple "get more $" building?
  • Black Market items appear to be not very balanced at this stage. Wasn't sure what the difference is between an EMP and Power Surge except that one is AoE. Goon Squad feels overpriced/underbeneficial because a Power Surge can get past it if the target isn't that specific plot. Wondering if Previous_Price * 2 is steep, or maybe each BM item might have a different geometric progression. 
  • What are the specific differences for Player handicaps, and can AI be handicapped similarly?

Thanks for reading this far, and look forward to discussion!

5,318 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Offworld Forums Top

Thanks for the feedback.

-Your comment about how you have been playing semi-coop makes me wonder if we should have a specific game mode where humans are not allowed to buy shares in each other until the AIs are all bought out. Do you think it would be better if the game just ends when the last AI is bought out and the highest stock price wins, or should the humans still have to buy each other out?

- You can see the energy generation rates if you move the "ghost" wind turbine and solar panels over the different types of terrains.

- "Auto-Supply" means that you will automatically buy the required resources on the open market if you don't have enough.

- Only the Scientific colony has its own buildings, so everything else is like your own colony. You do acquire Patents when you buyout an opponent.

- Offworld prices don't change, and we do need a way to display them before you build the market.

-  You don't lose anything if a Lab is destroyed.

- The handicaps primarily affect how many claims you start with, your starting cash, and how much colony upgrades cost.

Reply #2 from Offworld Forums Top

Quoting Soren_Johnson, reply 1
Your comment about how you have been playing semi-coop makes me wonder if we should have a specific game mode where humans are not allowed to buy shares in each other until the AIs are all bought out. Do you think it would be better if the game just ends when the last AI is bought out and the highest stock price wins, or should the humans still have to buy each other out?

I think there would definitely be interest in a generic "team mode" (much like Civ games do) where companies can be allied at the start, forbidden to buy stock in each other (or at least, forbidden to buy their teammates completely out, or have such an action not result in an acquisition), and the game ends when one team remains. I'm not sure how the buyout mechanics would play out in that situation - for example, you could have two companies whose combined cash could acquire an opponent but there is no current way of exchanging $ or goods directly, and I'm not sure there needs to be, considering companies are still companies at the end of the day (although MULE had "Collusion Mode", so there's precedent for it at least).

Keeping it generic also means you can have a "humans vs AI" game just as easily as a "humans vs humans" game, or perhaps even as "human + AI vs human + AI" game.

Apart from team mode, you could have a setting that ends the game when X number of companies remain and the winner is based on stock price. That would shift the endgame focus from just dump-selling for buyout $ into maximizing your infrastructure, and perhaps add a wrinkle into the proceedings as someone who is 2nd place in the stock price contest might try to do something to keep another competitor from folding until he/she can get an edge.

Quoting Soren_Johnson, reply 2
You can see the energy generation rates if you move the "ghost" wind turbine and solar panels over the different types of terrains.

Ah, I'll check that the next time I play. I think it was more of a question that it wasn't shown in the manual like the other deposit information is.

Quoting Soren_Johnson, reply 3
"Auto-Supply" means that you will automatically buy the required resources on the open market if you don't have enough.

So you can essentially have a building behave like the colony in that it has demands (like Water, Food, and O2) that must be met. Can definitely see how that can be useful.

Does the fuel for blimps count as "essential" in this way that it will be auto-bought from the market when a shipment is ready, or does it wait until there's enough in the stockpile?

Quoting Soren_Johnson, reply 4
Only the Scientific colony has its own buildings, so everything else is like your own colony. You do acquire Patents when you buyout an opponent.

So if I start as Expansive and acquire a Scavenger colony, do further buildings cost 1/2 Steel or Full Carbon to build? My question seems to focus on whether it is possible to build new buildings for a specific acquired colony, or that they can merely be upgraded.
 

I also noticed one time getting a care package of 50 Carbon after being idle/low-performing (I was helping teach other players and ignored my own development). Are there specific conditions under which this occurs?

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Reply #3 from Offworld Forums Top

Nice avatar!

yes, Fuel is bought automatically always (like Power)

If you are Expansive, all of your new buildings will always be expansive, even if you buy a Scavenger colony. The upgrade costs for the new colonies are persistent, however.

The 50 Carbon bonus is just a random player event - like in M.U.L.E.!

Reply #4 from Offworld Forums Top

Perhaps have it so you can set the teams before the game starts, similar to how Starcraft was. 1v1/2v2/4v4/whatever with any combination of AI/Humans. Might not always be balanced, but more options are usually better. Perhaps under team conditions you can have the ability to manually ship resources to another teammate via blimp.

As for victory conditions, what about having a settable stock price target as the victor condition, eg first to 100 wins? Maybe have it so you can buy the stock of others, but never actually obtain control.

The black market is a bit goofy balance wise, I think largely because of the handicap system. Moderate handicap gets so much free cash to play with, and can abuse the black market to cripple anyone who is low on initial claims/cash. Nuke the 1 high resource claim ASAP to really hurt someone immediately.  A bit strong early in the game where black market items are "cheap" and the effects have a much higher marginal effect relative to overall claims each player has.

 

bigheadzach: The pleasure dome is a power --> Cash converter. Allows for some fun manipulation.

Powersurge is a chain effect. As long as there is another building to progress to, it'll keep going. Water power just makes water work as the 1st resource consumed, and falls back to energy if there is no water.