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Author Topic: Offworld Trading Company - Out Now - outsell your competition  (Read 5271 times)

LoSboccacc

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http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/05/civ-iv-designer-takes-rts-in-a-new-direction-with-offworld-trading-company/


lots of thing I like in this press relase. except it is extremely scarse on hard details. anyway:

they're making a game where you buy zones to produce stuff, you need to specialize in the stuff you produce and will need stuff from other players to ramp up production. or something.

richest buy competitors and last player standing non bought win

the internal market will be studied to prevent the exponential growth problem of player getting slightly ahead at start becoming unstoppable.


-- edit --

game's out and initial feedback is positive.

> the internal market will be studied to prevent the exponential growth problem

this seems to have been addressed well, with pirates and stuff hitting the richer the most. let's see if any winning strategy emerge in the next period or if developers can make it fun at any level.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2016, 04:05:32 pm by LoSboccacc »
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BigD145

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Quote
“M.U.L.E.’s almost a miracle in terms of when it was made, what it did, how it did it...."

MULE had a simple enough set of mechanics in an era with much more complicated board games. There were a great many economic board games before MULE. Many were extensions of the time after the 1929 Great Depression. What made MULE special was the chess clock aspect, the equal time limit imposed on all players. The limited turns were not a stretch, conceptually.
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WealthyRadish

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Oh man, M.U.L.E.

Sorry, that's about all I came in here to say.
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Lithare

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Looks very interest.  Eager to see where this goes.
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Muz

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Sweet... Soren Johnson has a good track record and has proven that he can build a good 'inspired' game. Will look forward to this.
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Greenbane

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Rise from the dead, thread! Riiiise!

I was rather surprised there's no current thread about this game, with it having launched out of Early Access last week.

So far I've only done the tutorials and a couple of practice missions. AI on Applicant and Intern difficulties is extremely slow and harmless (unsurprisingly, being over two steps below Manager, or Normal, difficulty), so I was able to win despite doing things blindly and without much convoluted strategy. Mainly a semi-rush to the spaceport-like building and then cashing in on offworld shipments until I could buy out the competition.

The game's quite unorthodox, and I like it for the innovation. I'm still rather clueless as far as strategy's concerned, so I can't really say whether it's actually good or not. I'm hoping my enjoyment will increase as I play further, accrue knowledge and actually get challenged.

Any comments?
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forsaken1111

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I just went through the tutorial so far but I'm enjoying the game. It has several elements that remind me of "Sid Meier's Railroads!"
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sambojin

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More so a couple of questions. I love me a trading game, still rate M.U.L.E as one of my all-time favourite games, but rarely get onto the early access bandwagon.

So how much does it cost?

And how far along does it look like development is? Do you think it'll be stuck in EA for long (it's had two years of development so far)?

And even though it's irrelevant to my mind, what are the graphics, interface and "playstyle" like? Turn-based or RT? Quick and slick or complicated but cool? Or fiddly as hell?
« Last Edit: May 02, 2016, 05:05:54 pm by sambojin »
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sambojin

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Ok. So it's real-time, complicated but cool, very market driven, with quite nice graphics. Being from the lead designer of Civ IV tends to put me (and everyone else) at ease with its potential depth.

There's 4 different company types to begin with, and robotic is one of them (using energy instead of food). The others seem to be expansive, science and scavenger, probably giving bonuses to different fields. You can start with various engineers, etc, in the SP campaign, giving you more control on how you want to play from the outset, and what path you'd like to go down to win. A bit of longevity to the title worthwhile exploring. There doesn't seem to be a tech tree per say, more-so upgrades of buildings with production lines to set up with bigger "stuff" at the end of the line. These can either be awesome or redundant depending on market prices, need for that resource and competition. Research is more about future tech benefits, giving you something that others don't have, fully patented. Think of Wonders of the World, but !!science!!. Yes, you can also buy out other company's stock to end another player's run, with that pretty much being the "over-all" win condition if there's no others.

Resources can be used to support yourself, sold to others, or to support asteroid miners off-world (which is essentially the outside market, and the reason for putting stuff on Mars in the first place). You can choose to sell to your competitors for profit, or turn off the taps and watch the cost of that resource skyrocket if you've got a monopoly on something (they'll have to ship everything in, and you make a killing on the market at the appropriate time). You can also sabotage other players by encouraging worker strikes, etc as well. There's pirates and bad space weather to consider too, throwing a curveball at your plans of market domination.


There's a single player campaign as well as multiplayer, and I've seen it mentioned that it's in short-play format, so you might actually finish a game of this (no Civ4 marathons lasting months when you just want a couple of hours against your mates). Games like this are amazing in multiplayer, so I'd rather the ability to actually win it in one play session, rather than having weeks of scheduling woes right near the end-game. Good for single player too. Yay!

The interface looks pretty slick, with most necessary information right there on the main play screen. Building positioning is simple but strategic. Any other info or options all seem to be a mouse click or two away, without slowing down gameplay too much. There's plenty of fun sabotage shenanigans to mess with your opponents, and lots of synergies available for your production line and setup, without it all being overly complicated.


It usually costs $40US, but is on -25% sale until 16th May. So it's $29.99US for now, and you get a free Almanac DLC for that price (I don't know what that does, but I like early adopter bonuses, rather than pre-order or EA stuff). There's a $5 Real Mars Map DLC, which I might actually consider, because I'm a bit of a space nerd and there's no other trading games actually set on Mars. It'll be a fun way of really learning where stuff is.


78% positive reviews on Steam, which tends to mean it's not bad. And it can mean it's pretty damn good in this sort of genre. 9/10's and glowing reviews from plenty of journalists, for whatever that's worth these days.

Here's a Steam page for it, with trailers and stuff:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/271240/

And a Let's Play by Arumba:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wHWb_IsM1HU
« Last Edit: May 07, 2016, 02:03:35 am by sambojin »
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sambojin

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Oh. You can hire MULEs from the blackmarket to gather resources when you're stuck too. I think I'll buy this game next payday just for the cool little reference. :)


The Arumba Let's Play isn't bad, showing off land claim auctions, market manipulation on energy, MULE use, all within the first 20mins. I'll watch the rest, but I'm sold on it. Looks good. Looks fun. Gonna buy it.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2016, 07:13:47 pm by sambojin »
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sambojin

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Triple post combo!


On the wiki, there's a pretty good price for multi-packs etc.

The Deluxe Edition gets you a free key for a friend and bonus gubbins (Map pack, etc). $39.59 on steam, so $20 each this sale (till May 17).

2-pack standard edition for $37.49, so a little under $19 each.

4-pack standard edition for $59.99, so $15 a head.


The 4-pack seems pretty cheap for the game. Anyone want to chuck in next week? Makes it a lot more feasible at that price.

Wiki page here:
http://offworldtradingcompany.gamepedia.com/Official_Offworld_Trading_Company_Wiki
« Last Edit: May 02, 2016, 10:11:48 pm by sambojin »
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forsaken1111

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I already own it but would be up for a b12 multiplayer game at some point
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puke

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OMG but I loved MULE.  Dan* Bunten was one of the greatest game developers of all time, between this and 7COG.  Fucking visionary.

Even though I often finished games well ahead by controlling some sector of the market and extorting exorbitant prices from the other players (either AI, or friends and siblings) we never saw the best endings.  Years later, after the game came to the web as a free online offering, I learned from the high score boards that the most successful way to play is where everyone cooperates to make the colony successful together.  Just like in real capitalism and free market models based on the prisoners' dilemma, you do best by not screwing over your neighbor.

I also learned other things I never knew about the game -- as I had never read the manual:  You can intentionally buy MULEs and set them free to spike demand for ore and prevent others from maintaining their plots.  I never had any idea!!

Bunten made a ruthlessly capitalist game, where the best course of action was to cooperate.  Similarly in 7COG, it was ostensibly a game about exploration and exploitation, but you did best by cooperating with the natives.  he (I use this pronoun because it was correct at the time these games were made) was a genius.

I wonder  if OTC has similar activities?  Is it possible to cooperate so everyone succeeds together?  Or is it just "screw your neighbor for fun and profit" ?
« Last Edit: May 03, 2016, 09:36:31 am by puke »
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Anvilfolk

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Also relevant, CIV 4 and OTC designer Soren Johnson did an AMA on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4hhdk6/i_am_soren_johnson_designerprogrammer_of_offworld/
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