Game Length as of beta 7

from Offworld Forums

Is it just me or does it feel like the games take a lot longer to play these days? With the higher share prices beta 7/beta 8 I find myself losing steam after awhile trying to get enough money to buy someone out because it takes so long to overcome the high share prices.

I played one last night on beta 8 to see if it was any different and it still felt like the game just drags on and on. One of the best things about OTC is that you could knock a game out fairly quickly (let's call it the "anti-Civilization"). So if you had a bad start or were playing a horrible game the next one is just around the corner. If you had 30 minutes to kill you could pop in and play a quick round.

Anyone else feel this way? I'd like to see the stock prices knocked back down again to re-balance the game and shorten it a little again. I liked the balance in betas 4-6.

15,102 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Offworld Forums Top

I don't see it so much. All my games finish by day 9. Taking advantage of natural slow shorts with my cash pile and adding a hacker array in top usually works great.

Reply #2 from Offworld Forums Top

Quoting Cubit32, reply 1

I don't see it so much. All my games finish by day 9. Taking advantage of natural slow shorts with my cash pile and adding a hacker array in top usually works great.
End of Cubit32's quote

Are you talking about playing daily challenges or multiplayer though? I agree that hacker arrays can speed up the process against a dumb AI but players are a little harder to defeat with a hacker array if they know what they're doing (holding stock of resources they're not producing, etc).

 

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Offworld Forums Top

I think game length might have increased on average by 10% or so, which I think is good for the game since people are now using science/pd/engineering lab earlier rather than just rushing for offworlds. I suspect this was intentional based on some comments Soren made in one video. Frankly I think they might not have increased game length enough to please the masses though. If you take a look over in the Steam forums, nearly every other post in the Offworld forum is complaining about "too much rush" or "buyouts too fast" or "not enough time". Granted some of those posts come from people who bought the game during some sale and may not have much RTS experience. But it is seems very likely to me that if Mohawk wants to find a wider audience for this game, it will probably mean pulling in people who favor economic games (which tend to be slower) rather than typical 20 minute click-fest title from Blizzard.

I proposed a system a while back that would increase offworld prices with a gentle exponential curve as the game goes on. This would eliminate that sensation of the game dragging on past day 9 or 10. Maybe something along those lines is still called for.