Offworld Trading Company Analysis
May 14, 2017
1 Overview
Offworld Trading Company is a real-time strategy game developed by Mohawk
Games and published by Stardock in April, 2016.
2 Formal Elements
2.1 Players
Offworld Trading Company can be played in single-player or online multiplayer
modes. The player takes the role of a trading company’s CEO trying to setup an
office on Mars. The companies are competing to meet the needs of various colonies on
Mars. In both cases, the player has no avatar on the game screen but instead
manifests through the typical ”God Finger” interface of innumerable strategy games.
The camera is also occupies the 3/4 topdown perspective typical of such
games.
2.2 Objectives
The objectives are where the game shows its revolutionary gameplay. The objective is
to run a successful business. To do this, the player will need to scan the map for
resources, analyze it for potential shortages, and try to meet those shortages by
harvesting resources and selling them at prices favorable to the player. Successfully
doing this will increase the value of the player’s business’s stock, and allow the player
to invest in purchasing more of their own stock, and investing in your rivals’ stocks as
well.
2.3 Rules
Unlike most other RTS games, the rules focus almost exclusively around market
mechanics. The colony and the other companies need various amounts of resources.
The more the player’s company, the rival companies, and the colony purchase a
resource, the more that resource’s price will increase. Selling that resource will
decrease its price. The player, and other companies, can thus manipulate the prices of
resources by buying them and selling them.
2.3.1 Factions
There are four factions in the game, but the player can choose which faction to use
after scanning the map for resources. This allows the player to tailor their strategy
to each particular map, as each faction offers slightly different pros and
cons.
- Expansive: units move 50% faster, one extra claim per HQ upgrade, steel requirements for buildings are halved
- Scavenger: use Black Market more frequently, learn about market news earlier, use carbon instead of steel to construct buildings
- Scientific: Manufacturing Buildings can use raw resource deposits when placed on that resource tile, 50% faster patent research, EMPs and Power Surges last half as long
- Robotic: HQ does not consume life support, units use Power instead of Fuel, double bonus from resource tiles under the HQ, requirements for upgrading HQ are reduced and slightly different from other HQs, buildings receive adjacency bonus from buildings that supply an input
2.3.2 HQ, Buildings and Claims
Before building an HQ, the player is given the opportunity to scan the map. This
occurs while the game is paused, but each scan advances the game clock slightly, and
the rival companies are scanning at the same time. Scanning reveals the map and
resources, allowing the player to make a somewhat informed decision about what HQ
to build and where.
Once the player builds their HQ, the rest of the map is revealed. Each HQ allows
3 claims for the first three levels, but 4 for the fourth level, and 5 for the fifth level.
The player can use these claims to state ownership over any tile unclaimed by
another company on the map. Once the player’s claims are used up, the player must
either sell a building, upgrade their HQ to receive more claims, or purchase one
through auction.
The player will need to construct buildings to provide power, and generate
resources.
2.3.3 Resources and Conversion
There are six basic resources:
- Aluminum
- Iron
- Carbon
- Silicon
- Water
- Power
These can be converted into other resources:
- 1 Chemical = 1 Fuel + 1 Carbon + .4 Power
- 1 Electronics = 1 Aluminum + 2 Carbon +1 Silicon + .8 Power
- 1 Food = 2 Water
- 1 Fuel = 2 Water + .6 Power
- 1 Oxygen = 4 Water + 1.2 Power
- 1 Glass = .5 Oxygen + 2 Silicon item 1 Steel = 2 Iron
using different buildings
- Geothermal Plants, Solar Panels, and Wind Turbines provide power, which is needed by almost all other buildings
- Electrolysis Reactors process water into Fuel and Oxygen
- Water Pumps harvest Water
- Greenhouse Farms convert Water into Food
- Chemical Refineries produce Chemicals
- Electronics factories produce Electronics
- Kilns produce Glass
- Steel Mills produce Steel
- Mines and Solar Condensers collect Carbon, Silicon, Iron, Aluminum, Water or Oxygen, depending on the resource tile
- Special Buildings provide different bonuses and abilities
- Hacker Arrays: consumes electronics to allow the player to directly manipulate resource prices
- Pleasure Domes: give the player income from the colony
- Patent Offices: consumes chemicals to grant the player exclusive abilities
- Optimization Centers: consumes chemicals to improve the production rates of the resources
- Offworld Markets: consumes Fuel and Aluminum to allow the player to sell a resource offworld.
Each resource can be collected by constructing an appropriate building on an
appropriate tile. Resource tiles come in different levels, which provide different rates
of the resource. These are given in terms of X/second, where X is the amount of the
resource. The player’s HQ might require some of these as life support, depending on
what type of HQ the player has built.
The buildings will only function if they are receiving all their required
inputs.
2.3.4 Stocks
Each company starts owning a number of shares in themselves. As the companies
upgrade their HQs, construct buildings, and generate money, the value of their stock
will increase. Whenever the player has enough money, they may purchase shares of
their own stock or of other companies’ stock.
The player may also purchase shares that are already owned, but in this case they
must pay twice the base price.
Once any company owns 5 out of 10 shares in another company, the
second company becomes a subsidiary of the first, effectively removing it as a
threat.
2.3.5 Patents and Optimizations
As discussed before, the patents offer various bonuses, and once patented, are owned
exclusively by the company which invested in the research. For example, the player
may invest in a Teleportation patent, which allows resources to be teleported where
they need to go. This eliminates that company’s need for fuel to transport them. The
fuel can then be sold, or turned into chemicals or used for some other purpose, or the
electrolysis reactors can be shut down and scrapped, allowing the player to invest in
something else.
Optimizations are available to any company that has build the Optimization
Center. This center converts increasing amounts of chemicals into production bonuses
for the resources. For example, the player could invest in increasing fuel and
chemicals, making it easier and quicker to produce those resources. These could be
sold, or in the case of chemicals, used to invest in more optimizations and
patents.
2.3.6 Engineers and CEOs
In the campaign, the player can choose to play as different CEO, each of which has
different bonuses, starting with more claims, receiving shipments of resources when
upgrading the HQ, lowered costs for particular buildings or hiring staff,
etc.
The player may also hire different engineers, either on a weekly bases or for
the whole campaign. These engineers come in different categories, and the
first one hired in each category unlocks that building for the player to use,
while each one further hired gives a bonus to the production rate of that
building.
Before beginning the campaign map, the player may purchase these engineers and
perks using a stock of money. In the first week of the campaign, this is a constant
amount, but in later weeks it is based on the player’s previous performance in the
campaign.
2.4 Procedures
2.4.1 Scan for Resources and Build HQ
At the beginning of each campaign week, the player will be allowed the chance to
scan the new map for resources and decide on a location and type for the HQ. The
HQs available to the player and the resource distribution across the map influence
which kind of HQ would be best.
2.4.2 Construct Buildings
Throughout each campaign week, the player will build diverse buildings, depending
on the player’s long term strategy and current situation. Building slots consume a
claim, which is primarily limited by the player’s HQ level.
2.4.3 Buy or Sell Resources
As the name of the game suggests, the player will be buying and selling resources all
the time. Becoming totally self-sufficient is probably not a viable strategy, as it will
entail making at least 12 different buildings, one to supply each resource. Instead, it
makes more sense to specialize in a few building types producing a few resources and
selling those to earn enough to cover the purchase of any necessities the player is not
producing.
2.4.4 Buy or Sell Stock
As the player’s business thrives or fails, the stock price of their company will rise and
fall in tandem. If the player earns enough money to purchase a share in one of their
business rivals, that option will be highlighted on the UI. On the hand, if the player
mismanages their business and their stock price drops, their business rivals may try
to purchase the player’s stock, or the player may be forced to sell their stock to stay
afloat financially.
2.4.5 Use Black Market
In place of open warfare using lasers, guns, swords, rockets, or armies, there is
the black market. The black market allows the player purchase temporary
mutinies in another business’s buildings, giving the player access to those
resources, or to create a temporary power outage that shuts down all the
buildings in an area. The player may also purchase defensive options, such as a
good squad that will intercept such aggressive quasi-legal tactics by one’s
opponents.
2.4.6 Purchase Patent or Optimization
By constructing a Patent Center or Optimization Center, the player may invest
increasing amounts of chemicals in research. Patents confer special abilities, such as
running all vehicles on water, or using teleportation, or receiving a percentage of
one’s rivals’ financial debts each day.
2.4.7 Make Offworld Shipment
By constructing the Offworld Market, the player is given the ability to sell any of
their commodities offworld. Offworld prices for certain commodities can be several
times higher than local ones, producing large profit margins.
2.5 Resources
2.5.1 Tangible Resources
- Resources: The actual resources, in terms of water or fuel or what have you, can be bought or sold or converted into other, hopefully more valuable ones.
- Buildings: The buildings constitute an important resource, as they are main way to harvest in-game resources.
- Money: Perhaps the most important resource of all, as buildings, in-game resources, and stocks all have their values stated in terms of money, and of course, making lots of money is the object of the game.
- Stock: All companies in the game have stocks divided into ten shares, the price of which varies in accordance to the player’s performance. The player may purchase stock of another company or of their own.
2.5.2 Intangible Resources
- CEO: The player chooses a CEO at the beginning of each campaign, and while this choice provides various bonuses and special abilities, there is no avatar of the CEO during gameplay.
- Engineers: Also during the pre-campaign, the player may invest money in purchasing engineers. These allow the player to build specific types of buildings, or grant bonuses to those buildings production.
- Patents: These may be researched by any player with a Patent Office, but once researched can only be used by one player.
- Optimizations: These may be researched by any player with an Optimization Center, and grant production bonuses up to a 100% increase in whichever resource the player chose to research.
2.6 Conflicts
The game features quite a few conflicts.
2.6.1 Specialization versus Diversification
The player, and the other companies as well, must choose between trying to produces
all the resources they need themselves, or specializing in a few resources. Both have
advantages and disadvantages, and may be used to different degrees under different
circumstances.
2.6.2 Long Term versus Short Term
The player must constantly evaluate how to invest claims and money. Using a claim
on a silicon resource tile that the player will not use immediately might seem like a
waste, but if there are only 3 silicon tiles on the whole map, it is very likely that
other companies will snatch it up. If that happens, the player will need to purchase
silicon to make glass and electronics, leaving them dependent on their rivals for that
resource. On the other hand, perhaps the player does not plan on making
glass or electronics. It might still make sense to claim that resource, on the
assumption that other companies will need to buy it to produce their glass and
electronics.
The player may instead choose to build elemental quarries on carbon, mines for
aluminum or iron, or even water pumps to immediately start producing profitable
product.
2.6.3 Black Market versus Buyout
It is possible to play the game without resorting to the quasi-legal tactics of mutinies,
power outages, nuking underground resources, dynamiting buildings, etc. Instead, the
player can buyout their rivals by purchasing their stock and making them into a
subsidiary. Both are viable options, and indeed, the player may even mix them. This,
however, uses a large amount of money.
2.7 Boundaries
2.7.1 Map
Each map has a limited number of resource tiles.
2.7.2 HQs
Each player may only build one HQ and can only have an HQ of one kind during a
campaign week.
2.7.3 Claims
The player receives a limited number of claims for each HQ upgrade, and there is no
way to change this number.
2.7.4 Stocks
There are only ten shares of every company’s stock. There is no way to increase or
decrease this number.
2.8 Outcomes
There are two basic outcomes: either the player has managed their company well,
making it very profitable, or they have been bought out by a rival or they have not
made it profitable.
3 Dynamic Elements
3.1 Patterns
This section discusses the patterns of resource flow and feedback that can be found in
Offworld Trading Company in terms of those in Joris Dormans’s and Ernest Adams’s
book, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design.
The game includes many buildings which only produce when the sun is out,
as they are solar powered. This introduces a slow cycle pattern into the
game.
Each time the player upgrades their HQ, they are granted a limited number of
claims. The player cannot influence in any direct way the number of claims received
or when they are granted, besides the choice to upgrade the HQ. This is a hallmark
of the static engine pattern.
The core gameplay can be found in the engine building pattern. The main resource is
money, and the mines, quarries, mills, kilns, and other buildings can be
viewed as ways to convert their resource into more money. The player can
influence the rate of money production by converting one resource into another,
building more resource gathering sites, building more manufacturing sites,
or conducting research which changes the efficiency of the those various
buildings.
All the HQs, except for the robotic one, require increasing amounts of oxygen, water,
and food to provide life support for the staff living and working there. As the player
upgrades their HQ, this drains more and more of those resources, depriving the
player of any potential revenue from selling them or converting them into another
resource. This epitomizes the dynamic friction pattern.
The black market and the regular market both strongly feature stopping mechanisms.
Buying increases the price, making it more and more expensive to buy that item,
while selling decreases the prices, giving the player less and less money for the same
amount of product. These prevent the player from taking advantage of low prices or
high prices for too long, as any action taken by the player will tend to bring the price
back to a normal level.
3.1.1 Slow Cycle
3.1.2 Static Engine
3.1.3 Engine Building
3.1.4 Dynamic Friction
3.1.5 Stopping Mechanism
3.2 Prices
The prices of every commodity change over time, and are directly influenced by the
player’s sales and purchases, the rival companies’ sales and purchases, the needs of
the colony, as well as random events. Every playthrough the prices will be slightly
different, and change differently over time because of how the player and the AI
act.
3.3 Rivalries
The player and the rival companies can choose to focus on resource production, or
they can engage in hostile takeovers, and/or heavily use the black market to harass
their rivals. The relationships that develop over the course of the campaign will thus
be different, as the player and rival companies are constantly reevaluating what the
best course of action is.
4 Dramatic Elements
The dramatic elements are somewhat weak compared to other strategy games, but
the strategic wonderland more than makes up for this.
4.1 Characters
The CEOs are something like characters, but there is no dialogue outside of the
tutorials and a few messages during gameplay.
4.2 Story
There is no story as such, although the CEOs function something like characters.
Instead, the story is told through the player’s choices and reactions to the rival
companies’ choices.
5 Conclusion
Offworld Trading Company is a masterpiece of strategy design. Each decision carries
weight, and the player must think carefully about the placement and type of their
HQ, whether to specialize or diversify in resources, how aggressive to be towards
other companies, etc. It is a triumph of design that meeting the needs of the
market efficiently and making a profitable company in Offworld Trading
Company feels as good as fighting against hordes of enemies in other strategy
titles.
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