General Advice for a New Player?

[Eon Pig]

I want to get better at this game, but I have this overwhelming feeling that there is some kind of hidden variable at play that I'm just not seeing.

As of writing this, I have over 20 hours into the game, but I still cannot win reliably. The first time I played this game, I only got through 80% of the tutorial before eventually getting dropped against standard-difficulty computers. I lost over and over again, to the point that I ragequit and uninstalled the game. Then I came back one year later, got modestly competent at the game, beat the tutorial, a skirmish, and a few blue chip ventures, but that's where my luck ran out.

My experience in playing the campaign can best be described as constantly hitting my head against the wall. I would start a level, test out some strategy slightly different from the last one, start falling behind the rest of the players, restart, and try again. I would keep doing this until I either executed every action perfectly or gave up and went to bed.

But I still feel like I have a grasp of the game. I know what every building does, how to read markets for supply and demand, figure out which players produce what, understand monopoly power, and I occasionally launch properly-timed sabotages to stop players from exploiting upcoming shortages and surpluses. I have played as every starting HQ except Diadem and Penrose; my personal favorite is Meridian because starting out with three steel mills seems to work out pretty well, and moving on to directly produce advanced goods makes a reliable amount of money. But every time I play a game, I start out strong, but then somehow lose the lead, and I can't figure out why.

Today's daily challenge was a particular mind-boggler. There were 7 nomadic players for a total of 14 HQ's, plus mine, and the colony in the middle had an insatiable demand for electronics. By the endgame I had around 15 electronics factories and was earning a maximum of $3400 per tick, and I STILL LOST. Two of the other AI players on the map were somehow exploiting opportunities I couldn't see, and every time I tried again, they would always spawn in the same locations, perform the same build orders, and advance faster than everybody else. I tried playing as different starting HQ's, monopolizing the only two iron tiles on the map as much as possible, lashing out at both of the top AI's with black market sabotage whenever possible, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually, I got that feeling of repeatedly headbutting a brick wall again and decided to seek guidance.

Also, I can't view any of the replays. No idea why. "The replay file could not be downloaded correctly" always shows up.

I really want to be good at this game, but I can't find help anywhere else.

[hexapus]

There are several good resources, and you can find them on the newplayer-guides channel of offworld's discord channel:

https://discord.gg/0pQ0rgV4DDFxO2rD

I think this one: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1661490975

and these videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg9hCS61d-H6R8K-ld8hu3zQtB585yorF

will help you the most.

[Puffalo Phil]

The game is dead as a doorknob

[Sagi]

The game for us worked best to play immidiatly with friends who also don't know the game yet.
Then learn it together and discuss every match after and everyone will get better and you have lot''s of fun.
Playing this against the ai or strangers is completly boring

[Eon Pig]

Thank you very much!
That tutorial had a vital piece of information that the game never bothered to tell me: pressing [x] shows the net revenue for all buildings, so I can make more informed decisions on what to build. In addition, it also helped with the stock market.

My luck has returned and I already have two new victories. One was against today's daily challenge, where I somehow managed to drag the sole AI player into deep debt and rush-buy to victory. The second was against a skirmish that I set up myself, where I teamed up with a computer against two others. I won at the expense of my teammate, who shared too much steel and let me develop to level 5 faster than everyone else at the cost of their own development rate. I wasn't quick enough to stop them from getting bought out, but the massive head start won me the game.

I hit a bit of a brick wall when starting a new campaign though. Playing as Meridian, I started on a map that promised double the launch rate for offworld markets if I won. Problem is, one the map reached endgame, the price of EVERYTHING (except silicon) drops precipitously, and everyone on the map struggles to make a profit. Even with my newfound skills and Nanotechnology, surviving on this map proved too difficult.

I'll go after the blue chip ventures next. Just because a game has a low player count doesn't mean people shouldn't play it, I personally see it as a very well-made game that's worth playing, even if it is old. It's like Command and Conquer 2; just because nobody plays the game anymore doesn't mean it's bad, and it would be a shame to let all that effort go away.

Either that or it's just my buyer's remorse talking. I somehow got this game and all its DLC for $20.

[geggis]

Yeah, X is really one of the most important keys so it's a shame it doesn't get mentioned anywhere. I'm wondering where I learnt to use it myself now...

You sound like you're on a similar level to me actually, but whereas I've been feeling more confident than I ever have (I come back to OTC often), you seem to have hit a wall that I no doubt would have without the X key! I'm glad you've found a footing and may you continue to screw the other CEOs!

For what it's worth, OTC is my favourite RTS because it's so different to everything else. The fluid stock market and how it discourages rote build orders as well as the proc. gen. maps and randomised black markets and auctions are inspired from a dynamic replayability point of view. I've played some MP over the years but the single-player is really fantastic so you'll have a great time. I'm just tackling the Blue Chip Ventures myself now and intend to dig into the campaigns some more in future. The DLC has been great.

[dimi]

Originally posted by Stylistic Sagittarius NL:

The game for us worked best to play immidiatly with friends who also don't know the game yet.
Then learn it together and discuss every match after and everyone will get better and you have lot''s of fun.
Playing this against the ai or strangers is completly boring

This.

[Ichbineinkonto]

try also daily challenge and see how quickly you can upgrade hqs and find good starting positions

because the first thing you need to be good in is upgrade upgrade and upgrade from tier 1 to tier 3 hq
the biggest fault i see from new players is they directly search for high value markets and forget to upgrade or the basic needs

[geggis]

I love playing against the AI, whether it's Manager+ skirmishes or in the excellent campaign. It's a great way to practice for MP too, provided you don't fall back on to pausing too much.