Two comments on features

from Offworld Forums

Hi, I've been watching this game since the Yogscast and Day[9] did videos of it, and just bought in at the beginning of the sale with a bunch of friends. I don't claim to be good, and neither do my friends, but after two nights of non-stop games, there were two questions / comments / suggestions I wanted to post about.

The first, are you supposed to be able to see where other people put goon squads? My friends said they stopped targeting certain buildings because they could see the goon squads there. This seems kind of useless, as so many abilities can be put on adjacent tiles for near full effect, and no one is going to just GIVE you an item if they know that's what will happen. So was this a bug, or am I not understanding how these should work?

Second, it would be really nice to be able to search for specific buildings. If I buy someone out who ran in to debt because of poor choices, I don't want to have their steel factories continue producing a worthless resource. But I'm not very good at knowing the entire map, so I have no clue where these new steel factories are, and have to spend extra time searching around the map for them. As a different scenario, I oftentimes play Robotics, and don't make glass or chemical factories of my own until very late, after I've already acquired 1 or 2 from buy-outs. I'd like to place the new ones adjacent to the old ones, but again, have no idea where they might be. Some sort of small menu bar with an icon for each building type, where I could click and it would cycle to the next building cluster of that type would work great. 

Gotta say, I love this game. I wouldn't post about it if I didn't care, and I've spent the past two nights playing it because it's damn fun to play. Let me know what people think, and if maybe I'm just missing something here.

37,152 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Offworld Forums Top

- You can't see Goon Squads until they are triggered by an attack. Once they are, they are visible to everyone.

- One way to keep track of buildings is to hit TAB to cycle through HQs. It will show lines connecting all of the offscreen buildings to the HQ.

Reply #2 from Offworld Forums Top

I'm not sure what you mean by "triggered by an attack". Does that mean that after the first goon squad is hit, all players' goons are revealed from then on?

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Offworld Forums Top

About the goon squads - if you hit a building next to a goon squad (not the one with it) with an AOE effect (Power Surge, EMP etc.) the building with the goon squad will be defended AND you will keep the goon squad on it but the squad will become visible to everyone.

Reply #4 from Offworld Forums Top

Okay, that helps a lot with our understanding. My buddies and I tried out the base tabbing and looking for buildings that way, and while it's better, we all agree there still needs to be some update to make it easier to find your money burning buildings.

Reply #5 from Offworld Forums Top

I have another question about the UI. Is it possible to view the resource abundance (like what shows up when picking your HQ location) after placing your HQ?

It would also be nice if you could turn on a resource filter somehow. If aluminum (or any resource really) is scarce on the map and I have a good claim on it, it's in my advantage to nuke the resources of my opponents, but actually locating the different resources as the game becomes more and more cluttered can be very difficult. There's already some sort of map filtering going on when you select BM items (shows you the player owner) so it could be done using a similar filter.

Reply #6 from Offworld Forums Top

With experience you can glance over the left hand resource overview and determine which buildings are and are not profitable, with some experience. It takes some practice.

Reply #7 from Offworld Forums Top

Oh yeah, I have no problem with that. I know that I should stop my steel mills. I just have no clue where they are. Determining the resources that I should stop wasting energy / space on is the easy part, it's actually finding the buildings that's not easy.

Reply #8 from Offworld Forums Top

I personally never have issues finding any buildings because I remember where they are. Maybe it is harder for you if you are placing lone and dual buildings all over the map, and that is horribly inefficient. Structures that require an input usually are best off in triangles/diamonds.

Reply #9 from Offworld Forums Top

Again, I think you misunderstand my point. As I said before, it's when I buyout a different player that I don't know where my new allocations are.

 

~edit~ I appreciate your advice, but it really feels like you are talking down to me and not actually reading what I'm saying. I understand adjacency bonuses and how to remember where I place buildings.

Reply #10 from Offworld Forums Top

Quoting steelstiletto, reply 9

Again, I think you misunderstand my point. As I said before, it's when I buyout a different player that I don't know where my new allocations are.

 

~edit~ I appreciate your advice, but it really feels like you are talking down to me and not actually reading what I'm saying. I understand adjacency bonuses and how to remember where I place buildings.

I absolutly agree with you, there should be a way to cycle through buildings of a resource type that you own. There is however a way to cycle through finding resources on teh map, you click the resource icon in the UI on the left. Wish you could do something like shift + click to find your buildings which are producing it.

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

I created an account on this forum to make the comment that it's almost impossible to find buildings of a resource type, which makes the game frustrating after a buyout.

Reply #12 from Offworld Forums Top

Quoting beecoder, reply 11

I created an account on this forum to make the comment that it's almost impossible to find buildings of a resource type, which makes the game frustrating after a buyout.

The interface team hears you loud and clear.  We're working on a solution so that players will know where their buildings are in the game. It's still in early stages, but we are planning it for the game.

Thanks!

-Scott-