Questions and thoughts from myself and the MomoCon playtester group

from Offworld Forums

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?
  • What are the benefits given to a colony that founds late rather than early in the scanning phase?
  • 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?
  • 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?
  • 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!

6,084 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Offworld Forums Top


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!

Here's a few answers I can provide. The devs can likely answer the planning/theoretical ones.

Reply #2 from Offworld Forums Top

Thanks for the great feedback and questions!

- No changing keyboard commands (yet...)

- The only terrain types that really "matter" are Ice and Dry Ice.

- You can claim a plot using the button next to the number of claims. It can be useful if you want a Geotherm but can't afford it yet.

- Colonies founded late get more claims and a shorter delay on the black market.

- The ice condensor's big advantage is no power consumption. The dry ice condensor is unique because it produces carbon and oxygen. They aren't used often but can change the game occasionally.

- The black market prices change depending on the number of teams. The less teams, the higher the prices (because hurting the other team becomes more of a zero-sum thing).

- Haven't been able to figure out how to get the Goon Squad to work well with AoE sabotage yet.

- Pirates steal 200 units total.

- Virtual Reality doubles the revenue after all the other math is done.

- No major new buildings, resources, etc. planned at this time.

- You do get your claim refunded if someone else gets there first.

- Campaign mode is undergoing a lot of changes, so stay tuned.

- Keep in mind that Ice is always in the north and Dry Ice is always in the south (just like on Mars)

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Offworld Forums Top

This is a very old list from the old forums. There have probably been some changes/additions but its a start.

[quote="DeftMunky"]I'm the hotkey keeper at Mohawk. Here's a abbreviated list of the current ones. I'll try to keep this list up to date as I add things. If there are hotkeys you want, let me know!

Hotkey list:
Control - Q: Mute
F1 - F8: Show stats for various players (according to their player #), also cycles through screens
F9: Stocks graph
F10: Resource graph
+/-: Change game speed
Pause: Pause game
z: Hide colonies/buildings (useful for seeing underground nuke results)
control + shift + down arrow: Sell all resources

-Scott-[/quote]