tberton

Offworld, an economic RTS from Soren Johnson

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Sweet. Does it make it even better that we are bartering for it? I'm very excited to see this in action, but I have much wow to play so i hope you don't mind a bit of a delayed reaction.

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I got a bunch of coupons if anyone still wants $20 copies. Private message me for coupon-codes if interested.

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That moment where you realize that the price of water is going to be a problem.

I was not all for nothing though, I realized that the minus button allows me to sell manually. I had only been auto-selling up til now and sometimes I would sell too much, so this is useful info. You'd think I would have figured that one out since I've been buying manually with the plus button.

I would love it if I could set prices for my goods where they will automatically sell or buy if that price is reached.

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I had a game where the were very few resources and it was just me and one other corporation. That was an interesting game because in most of them I have to do things quickly and in this one, doing things hastily hurt me pretty bad.

Once I internalize which buildings require what, I'll be much better at this game. As it is, I make drastic decisions about what fine-good I'll produce (usually glass) and forget that I'll need an essential ingredient.

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I just won my first territory in the campaign. This game is super hard. After last night's games, I decided that my problem was that I was trying to get a hold of every material. For this match, I decided to make a conscious effort to survey the area and determine my specialization. I won in the tutorial skirmishes by getting an off-world market up and running first and then selling high. That's not an option early in the campaign, so I'm having to get creative. 

I'm becoming more familiar with the game and it makes a big difference. An example of this is that I now know what is going on in the auctions. The way I won this last game (against one NPC) is by maintaining slow growth by selling food and aluminum while keeping myself fully stocked for all my actual needs. Every time I had enough cash to buy the opponent's stock I bought the opponent's stock (even as I was going further into debt sometimes). This made me start paying attention to when the opponent's stock went up and down. I was participating in the auctions just to keep the prices high since there was only two of us in the match. I noticed that their stock was taking a dip whenever they won a high-bid. So what I started doing was warehousing my more expensive mined and manufactured materials, waiting for an auction, raising the bids up to $10,000 or so and then once the opponent won the bid their stock price would drop so I would quickly sell my warehoused goods and buy their deflated stock. It totally worked. 

 

I do have a question that I haven't been able to figure out: 

Do the NPCs have to buy the stocks you have in other companies (at double the price) when they buy you out?

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This game sounds fantastic. 

 

But I'll have to wait until March before I can spend that kind of money again.

 

Anyway I'm super keen to see how this project grows.

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Thanks for the feedback!

 

To answer your question, no, the AI doesn't have to buyout stock you own in another company when they try to buy you out.

 

Strangely enough, I was just about to smooth out the stock price some so that it won't have sudden jumps after auctions (although it will still go down...) which will make buying them out this way a little tougher. Were you able to get farther in the campaign?

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To answer your question, no, the AI doesn't have to buyout stock you own in another company when they try to buy you out.

So does this mean that the stock I own in companies besides my own does not affect my stock-price? I was buying portions of other companies early as a defensive play. I imagined that by buying their stock, my value would go up as theirs did.

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The campaign is really hard. I think my current game is two wins and a loss which is the best I've done. The meta-match choices remind me of Invisible Inc.. My current strategy is to go for the one-on-one matches when possible. I perceive them as easier.

I do have a question about it. If you upgrade your electrolysis-reactor does that just speed up how fast it manufactures fuel and oxygen, or does it decrease the amount of water needed?

Oh and since you are here I'll ask these too.

-I don't think I've ever seen ice. Do I need to progress further to encounter it?

-I bought a teleportation patent at an auction and I wasn't sure how to use it. Is it a passive ability?

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yes, buying stock in other companies does not increase your stock price. If you want to increase your stock price, you should buy your own stock.

 

- Improving electrolysis increases the output but does not change the input.

- Ice is visible depending on the latitude of the map.

- All the patent trigger automatically. Once you have teleportation, you won't need blimps anymore.

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On my way home from my job, I saw that fuel cost was at $2.66. I had all sorts of involuntary thoughts about exchange-rates, buying low, and selling high.

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Pretty excited about these descriptions, just as soon as I can see what the interface to actually playing this is, I'm sure I'll buy in.

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The latest patch removed auto-selling for everything but power. It's so significant of a change that it feels like a completely different game. It eradicated my hypothesis of what type of game they are going for. I'm not complaining, it's interesting to see an economic RTS develop over time.

The estimated fuel cost seems to have also disappeared when placing mines. I might just not be looking in the right place. I really like this game.

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Actually, auto-sell was a pretty recent thing. I implemented it so you can stop selling power if you want and just went ahead and tried it for all the resources. Was a weird feeling to use it, so I turned it off.

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Turning auto-sell on and off had been one of my most frequent interactions. I'm horrible at this game so My coneptualization of how to win is probably flawed. I'm not complaining about my lack of skill or changes to the game. It was just a wake-up call that I've never played a game like this before and I still haven't wrapped my head around what an effective strategy would look like.

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I have some $20 coupons that expire soon. PM me if interested.

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Offworld is coming to Early Access:

 

http://forums.offworldgame.com/460877

 

It seems like the natural next step. I really like Soren's laying out of the reasoning for Early Access: that having a wider user base playing the game means more feedback, and additional perspectives that more people can bring. Seems like a great time to get it, if only I had the money.

 

Oh, and the game looks awesome too! I think it's the first reveal of what the game actually looks like?

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I found out about this game recently, and I was sold on it reading the post laying out the game's rules (what a good way to promote your 4X game, incidentally). I'm not familiar with Stardock, why is their involvement bad?

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Look up 'Elemental game' on google and have fun. It's a bit harsh on Stardock, they did a hell

Of a lot to fix the problems with that game and, eventually got to something pretty good with Fallen Enchantress. Plus all the Elemental pre-orders got that game free. More than I think a lot of other companies would of done.

And the Galactic Civilisations series is one of the best 4x games ever released.

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I don't know what Bubsy's problem with Stardock is, but I assumed it was how its CEO Brad Wardell has generally been behaving like a jackass on twitter, calling Zoe Quinn a liar and openly supporting #GamerGate. Twitter isn't the best place for well formulated arguments and can easily be taken out of context, but he's been quite consistently obnoxious enough that I shudder every time his name pops up on twitter..

 

That said, I'm super excited about Soren's game, it looks beautiful, and even though the association bothers me (although I have no idea what this assocation even entails!) it's not going to stop me from supporting this game! Holy hell, it looks so beautiful!

 

OffworldLaunch_01_full.jpg

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I don't know what Bubsy's problem with Stardock is, but I assumed it was how its CEO Brad Wardell has generally been behaving like a jackass on twitter, calling Zoe Quinn a liar and openly supporting #GamerGate. Twitter isn't the best place for well formulated arguments and can easily be taken out of context, but he's been quite consistently obnoxious enough that I shudder every time his name pops up on twitter..

I don't have the time to go into it with links, but Wardell generally has a poor track record as a decent human being. Multiple employees (mostly female) have come forward to complain about a hostile and abusive work environment at Stardock, Wardell's defense of which invariably boils down to his right to treat his employees however he likes, as owner of the company, with the implication (if we're especially lucky) that the complainer was a terrible worker anyway and maybe deserved some mistreatment. It's stopped me from buying Stardock-developed products the last few years, but not yet Stardock-published products, although I don't feel great about any of it.

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