The biggest, deepest space 4X just got bigger and deeper!

Continue Reading...

Jupiter’s Forge is the first major expansion to Offworld Trading Company and it certainly wouldn’t be complete without additions to the campaign. Io has come to OTC, bringing with it significant changes to to resource tree, specifically centered around water. This means that simply adding to the Martian campaign was never going to be enough, and Io therefore has received its own separate campaign.

Continue Reading...

Thrive on the Volcanic Moon of Io and Crush your Competition
in Jupiter's Forge
You thought Mars was a tough environment? Think again.

Prudent business decisions take you to Jupiter's moon, Io, to harvest its resources and keep an edge on your competition. Io's 42-hour days and lack of an atmosphere means that you'll have to change your strategy and choose what to build very carefully! Radiation storms, sulfur frosts, tremors, and harsh landscapes threaten your business model and force you to adapt in order to survive.

Offworld Trading Company + Jupiter's Forge Bundle - $29.99 Buy from Stardock | Buy from Steam   Offworld Trading Company Jupiter's Forge Expansion- $14.99 Buy from Stardock | Buy from Steam

Take your adventure to Io  Explore Jupiter's volcanic and volatile moon where energy is plentiful, but life support is so difficult that it makes Mars look like a paradise.

Adapt to new Resources On Io, production works a little differently. There are plenty of new sources of power, but basic human needs - like water - simply don't exist. Priorities for what you build and harvest on Io are vastly different from Mars or Ceres. New resources like basalt exist only on Io and will let you build new structures and adapt to the lack of other materials.

Attempt the Infinite Map Challenge Compete against the rest of the community in this unique set of challenges. Each map evolves, becoming more difficult than the last - can you fight your way onto the leaderboards? Push yourself past the competition and see how many maps you can conquer before the harsh environment of space gets the better of you.

Conquer the New Campaign Show that you have what it takes to build your business on the harsh environment of Io. Snag your resources before your adversaries do and prove to everyone that money talks: you made it on Mars, and you can make it on Io, too.

New Faction: Diadem Trust An elite business group with grand visions, they are ready to crush any other corporation that gets in their way. Advanced buildings like Hacker Arrays and Patent Labs are top of the line and grant them an edge on competitors. The patent race also means nothing to them - they can purchase a patent at any time, even if its already been researched by another player. It's all legal, they assure you - read the fine print.

New Faction: Penrose Collective Highly adaptable and influential, they intend to thrive on the harsh environment of Io. With the ability to found 2 headquarters at the start of the game, they are able to spread their operations across an already depleted environment in order to afford them access to more resources. When resources deplete on a claim, the Collective simply trades it in for a more profitable spot. Get Offworld Trading Company: Jupiter's Forge at Stardock or on Steam today!  Missing some DLC in your collection? Get the rest for the complete experience! The Ceres Initiative | The Patron and the Patriot | Blue Chip Ventures | Map Toolkit | Soundtrack Real Mars Map Pack | FREE Almanac

The Nomads of the Penrose Collective aren’t the only ones throwing their hats into the ring. With them comes the Diadem Trust, known quite simply as the Elites. Led by Philippa Ndiaye, this faction is not looking to be sneaky, crafty, or clever. Their plan is to overwhelm to competition with the raw strength of their corporate empire.

Every last bonus the Trust brings with them comes from their superior advanced buildings. Some of these bonuses are straightforward, and easily exploitable. Easily fitting into this category is the Elite Pleasure Dome, which gains a bonus to income when compared to other factions. However, the enhancements made to the dome do require small amounts of chemicals to stay operational. In addition to this, Elite faction headquarters themselves are well populated and wealthy; they contribute more to the Pleasure Dome’s income than any other headquarters. This already makes the Trust a tempting choice in matches with large numbers of players.

Continue Reading...

G'day! 

May has been a big month for us at Stardock with the launch of Galciv 3: Crusade, and the upcoming release of the expansion for Offworld Trading Company, Jupiter's Forge. Despite that, we have been hard at work on Episode 3 to get it ready for launch in June. Aside from the big set of balance changes in the 2.25 Update to pave the way for Juggernauts, there's not much more to reveal after what's already been talked about in the previous Dev Diaries. Regardless, I'll go through some things here again to keep everyone in the loop.

## What is Episode 3? ##

Episode 3 is the third installment of the story-driven single player campaign which adds in two Juggernauts, a new class of units beyond Dreadnoughts. Episode 3 will be released for free to all owners of Escalation. It will also include other changes such as some bug fixes and map updates.

## New Campaign ##

The new fully voiced campaign, Genesis, will be our most challenging yet; I've put a great deal of effort to make sure "Much Harder" is no walk in the park, even despite having access to the two new Juggernauts.

Continue Reading...

From time to time I like to do a full AI evaluation to see where a given game is.  The reason I started programming in the first place was to write AI.  25 years later, we have Crusade.

So how does it stack up?

Continue Reading...

Conquer the volcanic moon of Io this Thursday, May 18
in Offworld Trading Company: Jupiter's Forge

Offworld Trading Company is an economic strategy game from Civilization IV's lead designer, Soren Johnson. Competition on Earth
has grown as resources have started to deplete, so businesses have turned their attention to Mars in order to turn a profit. Hire pirates to raid
your enemies' assets, research patents to gain an edge over your competition, ship resources back to Earth for massive profits,
and more in this fast-paced RTS!

Jupiter's Forge takes you to the volcanic moon of Io, where life is much harsher than it was on Mars. 
It expands on the features and gameplay from the base game, adding:

• New Location: Io - Explore Jupiter's volcanic and volatile moon, where you'll need to re-learn everything you thought
  about making life work on Mars if you want to survive.
• New Resource System - Io has plenty of power sources, but lacks certain basic human elements necessary for life - like water.
  Priorities for what you build and harvest on Io are vastly different from Mars or Ceres. You will need to build structures specifically
  for creating and purifying sources of water and other basic needs.
• Infinite Map Challenge - Fight your way onto the leaderboards with other Offworld players.  The never-ending slew of maps
  constantly evolves, each map becoming more difficult than the last. See how many maps you can conquer before the harsh
  environment of space gets the better of you.
• New Campaign - Show that you have what it takes to build your business and survive on Io. Snag your resources before your
  adversaries do and prove to everyone that money talks: you made your business work on Mars, and you can make it work on Io, too.
• New Faction: Diadem Trust - An elite business group with grand visions, they are ready to crush any other corporation that gets in their way.
  Advanced buildings like Hacker Arrays and Patent Labs are the top of the lime and grant them an edge on competitors. The patent race also means
  nothing to them - they can purchase a patent even if it's already been claimed by another player. It's all legal, they assure you - read the fine print.
• New Faction: Penrose Collective - Highly adaptable and influential, they intend to thrive on the harsh environment of Io. With the ability to found
  2 headquarters at the start of the game, they are able to spread their operations across an already depleted environment in order to gain access to
  more resources. When a claim is no longer necessary, the Collective simply trades it in for a more profitable spot.

Offworld Trading Company: Jupiter's Forge will be available as a bundle for $29.99 at Stardock or Steam on release day.
To learn more, please visit our community forums and subscribe on Reddit.

Add Jupiter's Forge to your Steam wishlist today!

Long ago there was Galactic Civilizations II, Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar and Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor. 

While Twilight of the Arnor is often considered the best of the GalCiv II series, for many it was really Dark Avatar that took GalCiv II from being a good to a great game.

This month, we released the second expansion to Galactic Civilizations III. Crusade is a similarly major change to the base game's replayability.

Continue Reading...

I'm highly biased.  I not only think Crusade is better than GalCiv III but I think Crusade is better than any version of GalCiv we've ever made.  But not everyone will agree with me and thus, we should discuss what is going to be "back ported" into the base game.

Continue Reading...

The promise of a new theater of capitalism has brought new competitors with it. The first of these is The Penrose Collective (also known as "Nomads"), a ragtag community brought together under the unifying leadership of Ezra Hoang. This group’s atypical practices have allowed them to find a place in the still young solar economy.

Continue Reading...