Well, I’d call that conflict instead of combat, but either way, it’s more intense than I thought it would be - in a good way.
Have people tried the slower game speeds? We hope we have one at the right pace for everyone…
btw, I’m going to be playing a mp game with anyone online tomorrow at noon EST.
Isn’t that kind of like Mariano Rivera offering to throw batting practice to the general public?
haha, maybe! I’m going to be playing on Nightmare! difficulty, however.
Ha, I will need to have a speed called the GeeWhiz speed meaning very very very very very slow. Everyone always having to say geewhiz that guy can not keep up!
Yeah, I would also need a more “moderate” speed. :)
So, a couple if really n00b questions:
(I’m a HUGE fan of the Civ franchise but have limited experience with any…I mean ANY…other types of games. But this really intrigues me.)
- Can this be played on a laptop or does it require the horsepower/components of one of those mega desktop rigs? If so, would there be minimum requirements for my system?
I’m a road warrior so whatever I get involved in needs to run off a laptop platform. I’m about ready to get a new one so I have some flexibility, here, to get something right-sized.
- If I’m a Civ player…am I in for something that’s not really my speed (no pun intended) with an RTS?
I love Offworld, but if your entire gaming experience is limited to Civ then I probably wouldn’t recommend getting into Early Access games at all (unless they are civ). Early access isn’t a place to explore new genres.
Btw, I’m a huge Civ fan myself but you gotta get out and play more games! Try some Defense Grid, Fallout 3, Skyrim and Portal. There are a lot of amazing games out there.
RTS is an inherently competitive genre- if you’re not into games such as DOTA or Street Fighter, I think it’s hard to enjoy RTS, especially ones tailored to a more hardcore audience (no idea if OTC is like this)
- If I’m a Civ player…am I in for something that’s not really my speed (no pun intended) with an RTS?
It’s a very different kettle of fish. The closest thing to a Civ style game in RTS (apart from thematically similar stuff like Rise of Nations) is something fairly stately like Sins of a Solar Empire or Anno. You have time to plan strategically and respond to threats, and you’re not under pressure to always-be-capping (except in the early game I guess). Whereas OTC is (was - my internet is back, hooray, so a more up to date report will be posted imminently) about grabbing resources (and patents) competitively and structuring your economy dynamically based on what your opponents do and what the map encourages. It’s much more cutthroat, at least psychologically. You can never really rest as there’s always something to be thinking about or clicking on. Oh, and games last 15 minutes rather than 15 hours.
Defense Grid 2 is scheduled to be out on Tues, 09/23!
Woo Hoo!
So excited! I’ve been playing through the original in anticipation.
From what I understand, the kind of competition in OTC is closer to that you find in Eurogames than in other RTS games.
What the hell! You guys are describing my dream game. I need to get in this!
I play a lot of Eurogames and a few RTS’s. How serious am I going to have to take this to start enjoying the multiplayer right now? Are there lobbies and stuff for finding games? Are there enough players to find them semi-regularly?
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We don’t have specific system specs, but I can run it fine on a pretty average laptop I bought early last year.
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The game does have multiple speeds and orders can be given when paused. The real-time aspect is a big part of what makes the game work although it’s more about managing your attention than doing micro orders as in Starcraft (you can’t actually control units in Offworld, for example…)
The multiplayer works great, but I wouldn’t say there is a critical mass of players yet. Chicken-and-egg, I suppose. I’m trying to start a tradition where we play with whoever wants to show up on Fridays at noon.
The Three Moves Ahead guys got me pumped about the game for the first time. I have to say I’d like to see a little better PR here, because honestly a competitive stock simulator actually sounds more interesting to me than just another pseudo-war game.
We’ve been trying to call it an economic RTS. Do you think there is a better way to describe it?