Obscurous

Join Date 03/2015

Campaign: Everyone lost

In the Campaign I keep running into a situation where everyone loses. I cannot seem to find the cause of this to be able to avoid it. Myself and my AI opponents are usually just starting to make some money and getting a foot hold when all the sudden I get this message that everyone lost.

I am a glutton for punishment so I am playing using the Scientific HQ. It takes four of five “start a new campaigns” to get enough pieces to even make a go of it. IE you start with solar for your free power option but you generally never get a Quarry to get silicon to make them. Then I start my run and pretty much every map I play ends with “everyone Lost” Some maps this only takes 10-15 minutes on normal speed. Is there some basic FAQ or manual or walkthrough for the campaigns?

I realize this is early access and things change so fast having a full manual at this point would be pointless. As the game evolves and changes, you would have to have a dedicated member of your team just for manual re-writes. But a basic quick guide to the campaign would be nice. Defining things like the conditions in which “everyone loses” occurs and how to avoid it. I spend time make sure to win the tech auctions so I can have them after the fact only to 5-10 minutes later am told “everyone lost” for no understandable reason. Am I missing some important piece of information available or is this a secret only few know and choose not to share lol.

You are making a great game and I am fully enjoying it and watching it grow and develop.

Obscurous

Also posted on the steam forums

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Hi Obscurous,

What's happening is that the colony (the white buildings in the middle of the map) is dying by water, food, and oxygen getting too expensive. It is not clear in the interface what the state of the colony is currently so I get the frustration.

This is an area of the game that we'll continue to improve and work on.

Thanks for the feedback!

-Scott-

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Thanks for the quick response both here and on steam,

I did notice some text at the top of the screen about population and jobs though no where in the menus does it say it was important . Also if I am taking a monopoly on water and O2 I guess that means I will lose every time?

Obscurous

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On the Steam forum a nice person posted Soren's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jttGcQEaqkw on the campaign which clears up some of the confusion about what was happening. Thought I would share it here since, in round two, he talks about the colony. Does not say how to fix the issue and make things affordable for the colony (I guess you would just sell a bunch to lower the prices). It does however at least explain the everyone loses issue.

Obscurous

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I like the idea behind having an NPC colony to influence play but the current implementation doesn't really work because it's not in your interests to pander to its needs, unless you're already in a runaway winning position. Twice now I've turned a losing position into a draw simply by forcing the colony to fail. The AIs seem not to care about it so you end up disadvantaging yourself by attempting to do so yourself, leaving every other corp to continue exploiting. I like the idea of it influencing the game but attaching a fail state to it doesn't gel all that well.

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Prisoner's Dilemma!

Actually, it serves as a catch-up mechanism. The leader has to spend some effort to take care of the colony, or he (and everyone else) will lose. The hindmost can safely ignore it, since they're losing anyway.

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Although I will say there is something unsatisfying about being able to (easily) play to force a jointly-losing draw.

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I was thinking about this earlier. And I had an idea. what if you could directly give the colony resources. I have 1000 water and they start complaining its too expensive cause I am hoarding it to hurt the other companies. Well I can be their benefactor and GIVE them what they need based on the colony size. This keeps them from having to buy it. Then they get to stay functional and growing while the rest of the companies still have to buy it at the outrageous price. plus as the colony grows its need to purchase other things will grow as well. so if you are monopolizing base human needs you can keep giving it to them while every one else has to buy it.

What does every one else think?

Obscurous

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For some reason, I was under the impression that the colony can't fail in multi-player games. That this was a purely campaign (or maybe all single-player?) mechanic. Specifically to avoid trolling and "take my ball and go home" ing.

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Yes, the colony can't

Quoting Anathomical,

reply 8

The colony won't be abandoned (currently!) in multiplayer games. It can only be abandoned in some campaign maps.

-Scott-

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The colony acts as a price cap in single player games. Instead it should act as a steep demand curve. prices rise on missing goods until the colony runs out of money then it collapses. the colony can convert inputs to outputs freely (daily) to gain equity and remove arbitrage. right now, 50 for food is too expensive, but if it could convert water to fuel at profit of 100 why can't it aford more expensive food?

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I lose over 90% of my games to this. I don't even worry about anything but having to race to wipe out people before we all lose. I have noticed that the AI companies don't lose points like I do and they don't do anything to help this situation. I end up having to do Robotic only because it is the only way I can get to level 3 fast enough to start to do damage. That is of course if I am not going against one of the sabotage AIs that keep me perma EMPed. THAT is a joke too, I played a whole game without once having all of my buildings up. It was a loss of course. I have found that I need to get the units for food, fuel, and oxygen AS A ROBOTIC just to keep the game running. Having repeated ALL LOSS games makes me so pissed I used to love this game, but when you have the equivalent of an ally in an FPS game repeatedly shooting you in the back of the head its just not fun anymore. I am not racing the other AIs, i'm just hoping they don't gang up on me and lose it for everyone.

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While playing non-robotics I'm just producing life-support and win.

By robotics I'm trying to attack fast enough to win before colony dies.

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I read that the colony dying will get some love on the next version of the game..I believe that their dying off will be eliminated.

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