Offworld Trading Company

[Sirian]

Certainly there would be nothing wrong with Wishlisting OTC and waiting for a (bigger) sale. The 25% off at launch is a sale, but eventually there will be a bigger one.

I finished the campaign with Maisie and unlocked the second Expansion-base CEO. I must say, playing with him is radically different even with the same base. He starts with Cold Fusion patent unlocked for all scenarios, which grants power for buildings from Water -- letting you off the hook for even needing power plants at all, if you so choose. That led to a crazy-different play out compared to normal in my first game with him, but it was a lot of fun to play with a different building set and different set of pressures.

I delved in to the campaign options for my second campaign: dialed up the difficulty, noted the options for random maps and randomized starting prices in the market. Once you realize how much these minor changes can impact the way a game plays out, you unfold a rich field of replayability. There is a LOT of strategy to this strategy game, even though the meta-strat always boils down to "make the most money the fastest". Once you get past that in to the details of how to best use your claims and how to manage resource shortages when present -- or what to do if a rival grabs the best option for a resource before you could get to it...

The maps available are NOT sequenced nor even grouped, that I can see. So every campaign is not only different in choosing from different CEOs and perks packages, but also in which maps are available in which order and which perks you can upgrade to on each map and-- Soren REALLY went to town in supplying both variety and randomization in the details of the campaign. The maps aren't the only variable thing: the strength of your buildings (thus, how much of a resource it produces from a fixed input of raw materials) varies by how many engineers of that type you've hired, so the money-making mix isn't something you can just read off somebody's formula sheet. You have to get in there and figure out the details not only of your own perks and abilities combinations, but on-the-fly market evolution that derives from what your rivals are doing, too.

The game's depth is really strong, even though all the main components are rather simple.


- Sirian

[Old Harry]

I've been playing for a few days and slowly improving, but just got bought out when I thought I was doing alright so I thought I'd ask the experts what I'm doing wrong...

Playing the last practice game (on manger level) with three AIs. I had a few goes where I got bought out early on as my economy cratered at various mistakes but this time (with a robotic HQ) I'd managed to build up a decent economy with a couple of offworld market launchers selling oxygen and food. I was making electronics and small amounts of chemicals for the domestic market, I had five shares in my own company, had bought out one of the other players and had a level five HQ.

Then the other two AIs started getting close to having enough cash to buy me out. I looked at our relative assets and I couldn't see what they had better than me - I paid back my debt and our cash+resources looked similar - so what did I miss?

Also how do I change my in-game name? It's currently set to be the first half of my email address, which is boring.

[Sirian]

so what did I miss?

I think the game defaults to your steam name. You can probably change it, but I haven't looked in to how.

I just played this scenario last night myself and won. I am strongest with the Expansion HQ so I chose that one. I settled on top of some aluminum, grabbed an iron mine and founded two steel mills. I immediately bought the rest of the aluminum I'd need to upgrade to Level 2, knowing its price would only go up from there, then waited out my steel production to do the upgrade. When the Black Market opened, I bought an extra claim for 2k and claimed a nearby High Aluminum. At level 2, I claimed the nearest High Silicon and opened a Glass factory, along with claiming a Carbon quarry (the rarest resource on this map, couldn't afford to get shut out of it completely, I thought) and a water pump (took the only remaining High resource. It was far away, so fuel costs not good, but NONE of the water was close to me so best to grab the bigger supply). By the time the Market cooled and I could buy again, two AI's had bought claims and the price was up to 6k. I paid it anyway, then built a Wind Turbine in a spot where I'd get the best triangle (knowing I'd eventually need two more). I was slowest to upgrade to Level 3, but fastest to get to Level 5. I think I built two Oxegenators at level 3, a farm, and I don't remember what else.

Glass ended up being low value for the end game so I recycled my two glass factories in to Offworld Launchers. I was the first to stand up one, and I protected it with Goon Squads until the price on those hit 30k a pop. I hit rival Offworld Launchers about four or five times, two of those popped enemy protection, but once the protection costs rose too high, nobody was protecting any more. I bought out one of the two rivals who had a launcher and then was able to focus on hitting the other's launcher. With two launchers, I had one online almost all the time. The other was off about half the time. I bought an Optimization center at auction when my base was still level 4 (pricey but worth it) and built another by recycling one of my steel mills after all my upgrading and launcher construction was done.

The price on electronics was over 500 per unit, but I had to buy all the carbon I needed to input, so net profit was lower. ALL of my offworld launches were oxygen, even though Oxygen costs rose to over 300 per unit, because that was still the best net profit per load, even buying two thirds of what I was shipping.

On reaching level 5 and putting down my claims gained there, I had: triangle of chem plants, triangle of farms, triangle of oxygenators (fuel in the red, so buying some fuel for chem plants), triangle of steel plants, pair of glass factories, triangle of electronics plants, one iron, one silicon, one (Low) carbon, one aluminum, and triangle of Water pumps (way across the map), plus the optimization center I bought at auction (connected to the colony not my base). I spent 30k on an extra claim AFTER this point and plopped down a fourth Oxygenator plant. As I said, the glass factories were dismantled to make room for my launchers once I'd made enough glass to build both launchers.

My black market record read 5 goon squads bought, 5 claims bought, a few mutinies (including two "take backs"), and I bought a Hacker Array at auction for almost 40k in the late late part of the game, which I used to manipulate prices on a few key resources, which helped me get value out of two overstocked resources I was sitting on. The final buyout of my last rival cost over 1M. My debt was kept in check (I think about 130k max, hovering around 75k and maintaining a decent bond rating most of the mid and late game) and was cleared before the end.


Of course, this is NOT how a game would look with a Robotic HQ. You'd need to take advantage of adjacency bonuses, make even more steel but not need glass or life support (to consume) and need more Power. I'm only expert on the Expansive HQ (I beat Soren in MP games with it a bunch of times back in early development, before his practice level and expertise grew past me because he was immersed in the game and I wasn't playing nearly as much.)

The campaign is a great way to learn the ins and outs of each HQ type, I think -- but is not the only way to practice.


Is any of this useful to you? You didn't mention the black market at all. If you aren't using it, you're missing a big chunk of the strategy. Pretty much have to use it to some extent, as it's a full vector in the game's dimensional matrix.

The AIs are rather decent at sniffing out profits. I think they are TOO eager to chase the currently blowing winds and tear down their buildings to put up different ones, so it's well possible to out-think them if your market foresight is longer. They are tough when it comes to short-term activities, though.

Often better to build two adjacent buildings of one thing (and get three buildings worth of value from two buildings worth of input resources) than to put up one of each of two types. Just buy what you are missing and put up a pair (or triangle) of that type later. At least this is one move that can get you ahead (or help you keep up) in many cases.

The resources on the map matter a lot, too. You need to choose initial position wisely, and consider both what you need and whether you have the chance to deny others what they need. I've been known to found buildings on resources just to claim the tile "in case" I need the resource later, and switch building types if I do. In one campaign game (where prices are not always at default) Carbon started with a high price while Steel and Aluminum started depressed a bit. I founded my HQ on the best carbon spot on the map, sold off most of the carbon and immediately bought my way to HQ level 2 and had 7 claims on hand to start the game, which let me grab all the best resources as well as build a triad of steel mills out of the gate. ... You need to learn to think in terms of the current market and what makes the most money in the near term, and not JUST think about self-acquiring what you need to upgrade and do construction. In MP and individual scenarios, you also have to keep a keen eye on mounting debt from things like power and life support. You can lose the whole game (especially in MP!) by having power or food costs skyrocket on you when you lack facilities and claims. Debt spiral depresses your stock price, too. It can be vicious. I tend to avoid Geothermal plants in general because they are usually not able to benefit from adjacency bonuses and they are popular targets for nasty black market actions. Wind doesn't turn off at night so tends to be the best value in my experience, but if Silicon is cheap and Carbon is not, or you happen to have S and not C, solar is viable too.


- Sirian

[Old Harry]

Thanks, that kind of detail makes it easier to understand how to value the different priorities. I guess my biggest mistake has been waiting until I had money to go to the black market, so I'll try delaying other stuff to get more claims early on.

I'll also give expansive a go and try and get good with it before branching out.

Fake edit: Well I won - settling late and going to the black market for lots of extra claims seemed to make a big difference, I could branch into whatever seemed pricey instead of being cramped - ended up with trios of electronics, chemicals, farms, windmills electrolysers and water pumps and using mutinies had control of 3-4 launchers for the last five minutes of the game, which made it nice and quick!

I did get close to being bought out before I'd bought up enough of my stock, but that wasn't a big problem.

On to the campaign now...

[Sareln]

The campaign is fascinating, though I find myself more dependent on the spacebar mashing than I want to be...

[v8mark]

Just bumping this thread to say that this game is fantastic, and I think a lot of people at RB would like it. It's even better now that it's been released for realsies.

[Bacchus]

How is the community? I was planning to return to it, as I only played once through the campaign since release, which I barely won on a some mid-high difficulty level.

(I played a lot of the mid-Betas 5-10)

[v8mark]

Community's small, but excellent - there's a discord channel which acts as a community hub (hopefully that link works!). Most of the time you'll get a 4p FFA game after a short wait. If you beat the campaign on anything above Manager (the 'fair' difficulty level) you'll probably be competitive immediately.

I've played somewhere around 60 MP games so far and I just hit legend rank before the ladder reset :D only one rager in that time. A lot of the games have ended with a couple of the players having an amiable discussion about what happened. It feels a lot like a board gaming community.

Edit: got difficulties mixed up

[Sirian]

New expansion out today for the campaign mode.

If you tried the campaign and enjoyed it, this should interest you. If you thought the game could use more depth and replayability, this may interest you.

Full Details Here

Store Page Here  with a shorter description.


Full disclosure: I designed this. Soren turned me loose, and I got to do everything that I thought would improve the campaign. I'm curious to find out how well I did with it.


- Sirian

[v8mark]

Very impressed so far after a couple of hours. Will be back with a more comprehensive report after a few more!

PS. The Russian dude is absurdly strong on Mars.