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.
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.
"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?
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?
