Offworld Trading Company

Overview

OTC was made available in early access on Feb 12th, 2014 and launched in a completed state April 28, 2016. Features to be added during the early access process include multiplayer matchmaking, leagues, and ladders.

Gameplay

Up to 8 human or AI players must take advantage of fluctuations in the market prices of resources by buying or producing low and selling high. The game ends when one player buys out all shares of their competitors' stock.

Resources

Some resources can be gathered directly from the map and others can only be produced by consuming other resources.

• Energy - produced by wind, solar, or thermal power plants
• Water - harvested from natural deposits or from ice tiles
• Food - produced by consuming water
• Oxygen - produced by harvesting dry ice or consuming water
• Fuel - produced by consuming water
• Aluminum - mined from natural deposits
• Iron - mined from natural deposits
• Steel - produced by consuming iron
• Carbon - mined from natural deposits
• Silicon - mined from natural deposits
• Glass - produced by consuming oxygen and silicon
• Chemicals - produced by consuming fuel and carbon
• Electronics - produced by consuming carbon, silicon, and aluminum

Resource Market

Any resource can be bought or sold freely on the local market (among traders on mars) for the going rate. The price of a single resource will increase as it is purchased, and decrease as it is sold back to the market.

Once a player has sufficiently advanced buildings they may dispatch shipments a resource into orbit to the offworld market. The price of resources on the offworld market is independent of the local market. (usually 10-20x the local price)

Black Market

Various underhanded methods of sabotage are available for purchase at the black market.

• Extra claim - buy an extra claim for your company
• EMP - freezes buildings within a radius of 2 tiles for a period of time
• Power Surge - freezes a number of connected buildings for a period of time
• Underground Nuke - reduces natural deposits on a tile by two levels
• Dynamite - destroys a building, reducing it to rubble (may be repaired for 1/2 build cost)
• Mutiny - forces an opponent's building to operate for the player for a period of time
• Goon Squad - protects a building from sabotage
• Pirates - patrol the designated tiles on the map, stealing up to 60 resources in transit

Stock Market

Each player's company offers a total 10,000 shares of stock to interested buyers and may be purchased in increments of 1,000. If a single player owns all the shares of another company, they assume control of that company's buildings and assets.