Offworld Trading Company from Mohawk Games

I wish all games had AI this competitive. Soren needs to do some work on a crapload of my other favorite franchises.

OTC is a total gem of a game that seems criminally underrated imho. It’s one of a kind.

Surviving Mars is great too - less unique in that it’s a city builder with a mars skin. The latest terraforming DLC adds quite a lot to that and as a science geek I do enjoy it. But OTC has a special place in my heart as something off the beaten track.

Hmm thanks for the replies. I’ll have to give OTC a fair chance and read some of the tips here.

My tip is don’t feel bad about losing.

Yeah, I can’t heap enough praise onto OTC. It takes the RTS genre and imaginatively reinterprets it into a boardgame-esque economic game. Then it wraps it in a tight, thematic, package and even has a great AI. It’s not super wide (which can lead to it feeling a bit repetitive - I couldn’t play it endlessly) but it’s very deep.

And the ‘wideness’ is exactly what the expansions are addressing.

Thanks for this, it’s helpful. I’d largely come to the idea of running on cash and not trying to supply all my own needs on my own, but this helps crystalize why that’s a sound idea and might cause me to lean into it more.

Are you aware of any good help resources for the game? I feel like if I could just get a handle on the fundamentals I could find my own way from there, but it’s so unique that I haven’t got a good foothold.

There used to be classes on the OTC discord channel. A bunch of the top players there were ultra helpful. One of them, Blues, is the guy who did the amazing advanced tutorial DLC.
I wonder if that’s still a thing, but I bet you’d be very welcome there if you dropped by.
Also the game comes bundled with a super helpful PDF. I’ve read it a few times over my learning period.

It’s a sad statement that it doesn’t even occur to me to look for a manual anymore. I’m off to RTFM.

Way back in this thread somewhere Soren posted a stream where he talks through some of the strategic concepts as he plays.

There also are a number of them that have put YouTube videos up explaining the game and giving commentary on matches.

Just a heads up the new DLC for this one launched today:

Excellent!!

Not on GOG.com?

Edit: hmmm. It seems the GOG version hasn’t been updated in a year and some other DLC was also never added to the platform? That’s mightily disappointing…

Maybe @SorenJohnson can confirm whether GOG is getting the DLC, and further updates?

Awesome, and it still counts towards the Founders benefit? @SorenJohnson you guys are too kind. I hope all is going well with 10 Crowns.

Yeah, let me know when I can buy a founder’s pack for whatever 10 Crowns is.

Soren’s next 4x game:

https://www.tencrowns.com/

Thanks! But, I seriously, literally don’t care what it is, if there’s a founder’s pack, I’m buying it. It’s stupid what a good deal that was for OTC, not to mention what a great game it is.

I’ve been playing a few missions of The Europa Wager. Really fantastic little puzzle scenarios, much like Blue Chip Ventures, with a nice narrative to them.

I’m a bit sad that we don’t see Europa in the generic Mars campaign (the way Ceres does). I hope that could be added in - it’s a lovely tileset and it would be really sad if those of us who don’t play much skirmish don’t get to see it outside scenarios.

I’ll be doing the same. I didn’t really spend a ton more on OTC, though. Of course I didn’t get the benefit of supporting and playing the game early either. My purchase history:

Market corrections: 3.07
Europa: 14.99
Conspicuous consumption (Stardock Humble Bundle): 0.00
Limited Supply (Stardock Humble bundle): 0.00
Jupiter’s Forge (prize, launch contest): 0.00
Scenario toolkit: 3.97
Ceres initiative: 3.97
Blue Chip Ventures: 3.97
Patron and the Patriot: 4.99
OTC Deluxe Edition: 49.59

Total: 84.55 before tax.

If I had to pay for Jupiter’s Forge and bought the two Humble DLC outright it would have been about $110, and totally worth it!

I think split 4 ways the founders pack came out to around $20.