New Founder's Feedback

from Offworld Forums

I got the prototype last week. I’m still pretty bad, but here are some initial impressions.

1)      This is already a great game. This is so much more than I was expecting from a prototype. It feels like a complete game and it is fun. I was hesitant to join the founders because I am not a fan of traditional RTSs, but I decided that between Soren and Brad there are enough people I trust on this game that I went for it. I am so glad I did.

2)      Nice learning curve. I had no idea what was going on at first, and the tutorials give very little information, but after about a half-dozen games I felt I had a grasp on it, and after half a week, I’m pretty sure a have a strong grasp on the mechanics of the game, and am starting to develop strategy. It also helps that the game is pretty fun even when you aren’t winning.

3)      I don’t feel like I have a ton of flexibility in strategy. I spend the first three levels making sure needs are filled so I don’t fall too far into debt and getting basic infrastructure (steel and glass) so I can upgrade without needing a ton of cash on hand.  Then I can start building chemicals for upgrades and patents, and goods and off-world markets for cash. There are little variations game-to-game depending on the terrain and how the AI is doing, but I have struggled to deviate much from this and still have success.

  1. The game seems to discourage specialization, which seems odd for an economic simulator. Part of this is due to the frequency of resources at the default settings, which makes it difficult to gain an advantage in any particular area. Even with that, there have been a few games where I have been able to corner a market and it doesn’t seem to pay off the way it should. There was a game where I possessed every carbon node on the map and carbon scrubbing, never sold back carbon on the market, and the price still never went over 30 and spent most of the game in the teens.

4)      It may be my style of play, but the colony types don’t seem balanced to me. Expansive and Robotic seem very good, Scavenger seems fine, and Scientific seems weak.

  1. The mechanics of the scientific colony are unclear to me.  If you build a manufacturing improvement over a resource node does it matter how good the node is? If a mine on that node would produce more than the manufacturing improvement uses do you get the excess? If it needs multiple resources do the other resources need to be shipped from your colony? Can they be shipped directly from mines?

5)      I don’t get how the pleasure domes work. What effects how much money they bring in? I tend to stay away from these because I’m not sure how they work.

6)      The back market can be frustrating. If I get an early lead, the AI seems to gang up to chain stun my food or power to send me into debt and there is really nothing I can do about it. I have tried to using goon squad, but in the early game it is hard to keep the cash up to really use these defensively.

7)      In general, I’d like a little more feedback. There are a lot of things to track in this game and it can be easy to miss something. Maybe an advisor who occasionally would pop up and let you know what’s going on? I’m not sure, but I feel like there’s a little too much raw data, and I’d like a little help from the game analyzing and organizing it.

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Reply #1 from Offworld Forums Top

3) Yes and no. Part of it is that growing is necessary, so getting past colony size 1 and 2 are a bit dictated. It's a bit more varied on higher handicaps, where you don't have the luxury of getting everything you need. Around colony size 3 and 4 is where you really get into the game where you determine how you want to win. So far, I've had success with many different styles, but a lot of the challenge is recognizing whats in play and how to take advantage of it. 

3I) Specialization does work, you just have to work at it and be careful about it. You can't overproduce the market if there's no demand. Using the carbon example, if there aren't any scavenger colonies, there won't be much demand for carbon. Carbon is an intermediary resources for everyone other colony type, and only used for conversion to chemicals. If there's no carbon on the map, typically chemicals will be purchased outright, instead of carbon, keeping the price low. However, if there are scavengers in play, the price of carbon will be higher due to consistent use for buildings by them. You can't effectively monopolize something that there is no demand for.

4) The colonies all seem fairly balanced to me. Scientific can be very good, its just the most difficult to get the hang of due to the difference in mechanics. The production doesn't seem to be affected by the resource quantity that the building was placed on. Other resources used have to get shipped, and the product has to be shipped back, creating a very staggered cycle. It's not my strongest, but the claim efficiency is very nice. Teleportation is a very important patent for them.

Robotic is the easiest to learn. Very straight forward production, but a bit more limited in the choices.

I've been playing expansive more than anything lately. Arguably the fastest grower, and most claims to do things with. Very flexible. Scavenger was in my opinion the best before the last major patch, but I can't say where the type currently stands. I believe they have one of the strongest, self reinforcing, progressions, but good scavenger spawns are much rarer now.

5) Pleasure domes have a pool of "consumers". More larger colonies = more money to be spent in the domes. More domes total = less $ per dome.

6) }:) It's a good way to bring the leader down, or increase your lead.

7) Keep playing. You'll become better at processing the data over time and it'll get easier to to recognize the causes and effects in play.

Reply #2 from Offworld Forums Top

Thanks for the feedback - for Scientific, the level of the resource doesn't matter, so you can feel free to use the low resources for your farms and steel mills and so on.

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