So I've handed out all my extra keys to others on staff for MomoCon (an anime/gaming/comics convention in Atlanta, of which I am a Senior Director of Gaming) and we've been enjoying things thoroughly. Games start out quiet as people plan and then get loud and obnoxious with every Black Market use and dumping of stockpiles. Managed to get everyone to give their thoughts and questions and address them with the group and the devs for great justice:

QUESTIONS

 

• What keyboard shortcuts exist, can they be found documented somewhere, and can they be changed at this time (even via config.txt file)?

 

• Will sand be of any significance in the same way that ice and dry ice are? It seems peculiar that the map points it out visually and in tooltips but seems to have no purpose other than increasing the likelihood of silicon deposits being located there.

 

• How does one claim a plot without needing to build a structure there? Given that claims are precious and you need to be maximizing them every moment you can, has anyone felt it important to claim a plot before actually building something, instead of building something elsewhere more vital?

  You can claim a tile by clicking on the claims #/icon at the top of the left interface and then the tile you want to claim.

   

• What are the benefits given to a colony that founds late rather than early in the scanning phase? More claims and reduced delay for the black market. Keep in mind the first founders timer starts sooner so they may still get black market access first if you wait too long. Indirectly, they also get more information about the map. There was a fair bit of discussion on this point on the old forums.

 

• Compare the benefits/efficiencies of gathering water via Ice to a Pump, and O2/Carbon via Dry Ice to Electrolysis/Elemental Mines. How has this affected play balance in your experience?

 

• How has the mathematical progression of Black Market prices changed from previous versions? AFAIK its always doubled. The starting values have varied.

 

• Are there plans to improve the effectiveness of Goon Squads versus AoE attacks like EMP and Power Surge, that can damage a building indirectly? Is there a possibility of buying Anti-Piracy countermeasures?

 

• Confirm that Pirates steal 150 units total before dispersing?

 

• In a previous post it was explained that the money earned for Pleasure Domes is derived from the total size of all colonies (the population available to be pleasured), split among all available Domes (each getting a cut). If I acquire the Virtual Reality patent, does it double my Dome income AFTER my cut is calculated, or does it double my cut of the total revenue, thereby reducing the value of everyone else's percentage? I'm pretty sure it just doubles after the calculation because the $ changes from $50 to $100 upon completion of the research.

 

• Are there more terrain types, plot features, resources, and/or buildings planned before release?

 

ISSUES/COMMENTS

 

• Sometimes a player will claim a plot that is adjacent to someone else's colony, only to later have it revert ownership to the adjacent colony owner. Initially I would chalk this up to unfamiliarity with the delay caused by actually having to send your claim bot out there to plant a flag (and someone closer beating them to it), but it begs the question: in such a situation where someone beats your bot to a plot to claim it, is your original claim refunded to you? In addition, has this reversion of ownership happened in situations outside of this specific circumstance (for example, just straight up being able to claim an already-claimed plot because of server lag)?

 

• Campaign mode seems to be extra-crashy for some, both in DX11 and DX9 modes. Would submission of logs help in these cases?

 

• When in Campaign mode it is difficult visually to identify which areas are available to be played in (the yellow blending in with the white).

 

• There needs to be a more visually distinct difference between Ice and Dry Ice, since their resources are so different. Time is lost attempting to place the wrong building, or waiting for the tooltip to show.

 

Love to chat about this more!