Ohhhh, looks great!
I’m not sure I quite understood how this works from the description. Do you start at the middle of missions, with each scenario having exactly the same fixed setup each time you play it? Do the scenarios have alternate win conditions, or do you always slug it out to the end using the normal rules?
(Either way, sounds like a cool idea. I didn’t like the campaign much, but this might be much closer to the kind of single player experience I’d like).
Each scenario (there are 17 total) has different rules, and most of them start at the founding phase. (I think a couple place your HQ before the game begins.)
Also, the next time you play the game, I would recommend holding down the X key to see what happens. :)
Oooh, nice!
(I must confess, I was secretly hoping for a switch of the voice overs doing that, but this might be even better!)
So, I bought OTC a long time ago, but haven’t actually played it yet. I’m most likely going to start with single player when I do. Is any of the DLC must-buys? Or is it all stuff I should pick up later if I get into it?
I started a new campaign last night, and I’d say you don’t need any DLC to enjoy it first time through.
I really wish there were more hours in a day. Between work and kids it seems like gaming usually loses out. I managed to spend some time playing OTC again tonight though, and I hope this was really successful for you guys Soren. I find the recent mixed review status a bit odd, since it is a quality game. I look forward to seeing what you guys continue to do with it, and the future games Mohawk will develop.
Zultar (who is doing work for Mohawk/Stardock at the moment) just said in a tournament stream that the TTS voices are being worked on again. I’m hoping we get them back with the Io DLC whenever that’s ready. I’d clip the segment where he says it but the stream is still running.
None of it is mandatory. Ceres Initiative and The Patron and the Patriot offer the most raw content (multi- and single-player respectively), and Blue Chip Ventures has a bunch of bizarrely unique scenarios and challenges that will help teach advanced game concepts and generally improve your play. Map Toolkit and Real Mars Map Pack are basically only worth going out of your way for at a later time if you want them (unless you get everything in a package deal or you want to throw some extra money at Mohawk). The upcoming Io DLC will go right next to Ceres Initiative in my list.
Haha. This is probably the most assinine reason I’ve ever shelved a game, but I was pretty annoyed when they did away with TTS, and I went and played something else that night. One thing lead to another and the game has been sitting ever since.
I’m not actively protesting the game or anything, but sometimes I’m a stickler for the most irrelevant and things in gaming.
I’m sure I’ll get back to it when my console gaming phase fades a bit (at least, I think it’s a phase) and I return to my PC.
If it’s any consolation, I’ve basically done the exact same thing, but am planning to take a crack at it again tomorrow.
It doesn’t affect the game design at all (which I still adore), and people who never used those old voices probably wouldn’t ever want them over what’s in there now, but I miss them so badly that I have trouble playing the game with the John Oliver wannabe in the release version’s voiceovers.
Getting the South African scavengers back will also make me unreasonably happy.
I actually like the new voices!
T___________T
(no, it isn’t a complete sentence, Discourse!)
It’s beautiful. Thank you, Soren.
John Oliver? I don’t remember anybody sounding anything like him!
I really like the voice overs. They add some much needed humanity to an otherwise cold and hostile doomsday scenario involving stock markets. All that said… I haven’t heard the ‘TTS’ VOs. What does that stand for btw?
Text-to-speech (think Stephen Hawking). They’re great for emphasizing the cold, hostile, sterile landscape of the Martian badlands.
And they help dehumanize the multitude of aggresive corporations bent on annihilating eachother before those last few precious resources are leeched from the planet and the worker cogs in these great machines are shuttled off to the next world, to serve not themselves, but the whims of thriving mechanations whose only concern is self-sustainability.
I experienced them only for a week or so before the new voices got in, and the Alpha Centauri fan in me missed them so much when they were replaced.
Contrary to kerzain, I thought they didn’t emphasize the darker aspect, but instead they put some much needed comedy in a world where I loved to think this is what was left of humanity.
Sounds like we are both ready to write our OTC fanfics!
I was just playing off the post before me. I thought they were funny and had a unique charm.
The “Offworld shipment launched, look at all the money” line is delivered exactly like Oliver would, and since that’s the quote you tend to hear the most often it’s the one emblazoned into my memory.
I’ll freely admit it may be unfair to the guy.