Last week we covered what’s available (and not available) on the surface of Io. The schedule says this week we’re going to have a special journal entry for OTC’s anniversary. That’s still coming in a couple of days, but for now we’re going to talk about all the new buildings available on Io and how you can use them to survive on this truly barren rock.

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Galactic Civilizations III: Crusade is an expansion pack for Stardock's popular 4X space strategy game, Galactic Civilizations III.  Crusade is a top-to-bottom update of the entire game.  This article will walk you through what's new, what's changed and try to explain it for those who may not be familiar with the series.

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Crusade is the space strategy game made by 4X nuts for 4X nuts.   Let's do this.

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Galactic Civilizations has the distinction of being the longest running strategy game developed by the same company.

Let's take a look at how it has changed.

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Hello everyone, and welcome to our second dev journal about Jupiter’s Forge. Today we’re going to begin digging into the meat of the upcoming Offworld expansion, starting with the most obvious place, Io itself.

As we talked about last week, Io is not a pleasant place to be. A good look at the moon’s surface should reveal why. Immediately alarming is the fact that Io is covered in lava flows and volcanic pits. However, most of this lava is composed of basalt. This is in fact very good news for your budding company, as newly developed basalt platforms will be able to harvest these flows and pits. These facilities will convert basalt into substantial quantities of iron, silicon, and uranium, then will ship these raw materials back to your headquarters for whatever purpose you may require.

Another use your company may have for these lava flows is likely going to be less direct. The flows have carved out caves all across the surface of the moon. As on Ceres, these caves can be very valuable to own, allowing a new point from which you can access nearby resource deposits. This can let you expand your own infrastructure around the resource to improve output, or even set up shop right next to a competitor and use their resources yourself. Keeping an eye out for these valuable cave systems can help you prioritize claims more effectively, and potentially avoid races for resources that initially appear sparse.

Also as on Ceres, resource deposits are small and difficult to access. Even the largest veins of minerals will dry up quickly, diminishing in value the more they are mined. As production is lost, we will need to either reduce our consumption or find new sources to mine.

Once again, ice will be present in some form. However, the ice of Io is different from what is found on Mars or Ceres. Io’s “ice” is in fact not ice at all - it is a sulfur dioxide frost. Thankfully, we still have a use for this and can pull oxygen from it in much the same way that we collect other frozen resources (at least as far as your company is concerned).

Finally, and most importantly, Io has no water. Nothing on the surface, no ice to melt, and nothing underground that you could dig out. Instead, you’ll have to collect hydrogen from the radioactive atmosphere, and oxygen from the sulfur frost. Combining these is the only way you’ll acquire water - and through it, food - on the harsh surface of Jupiter’s Forge.

Join us next week as we talk about the buildings you’ll need to survive on Io.

Offworld Trading Company: Jupiter’s Forge is now available on Steam!

Hey guys, Draginol posted a Dev Diary last night and there's a few things I'd like to add!

The massive 2.2 update, one of our biggest to date, launched a week ago and this sets the precedent for the momentum we want to maintain moving forward in 2017 and beyond. Unlike Draginol before me, I'm not a CEO and head of multiple projects, so with me at the helm of balance and the design direction for Ashes we'll be getting more done in a shorter amount of time and with more community interaction.

##REPLAYS##

While replays are now fully functional, we aren't done working on them and down the line we want to give players more tools to extract important information out of the match. This would involve being able to open up different panels to compare different values such as the upgrade disparity or what is currently being produced by each player. We have made a new section on the forums for people to share their replays

As an example, here's a mock image I made up in Photoshop to demonstrate what I'm hoping we can get with the Production tab.

##2.21 Patch##

We have a small patch coming out next week to fix some issues which were causing crashes. The Gunships are also receiving a cost increase as they are over performing in 2.2 

##Gameplay Intentions For Next Major Update## 

With 2.2 launched, we'll begin gathering feedback and getting to work on continuing to improve the game in next patch. As 2.2 was the first major update I had been a part of, the primary concern for the gameplay changes was to address the urgent and unfair balance problems while making the game more intuitive and welcoming for new players. With those out of the way, we can focus on some more fundamental reworks to really shake things up for the better. On top of general balance changes, these are we have our eyes on for the next major update.

• 5 new maps to be included for free in 2.3 thanks to community member Luxlupus. Maybe we'll have even more ready by then!
• More map improvements: So far we've got improvements to Frosthaven, Kralon, Thuban, Espana and Regulus, with more maps likely to be touched up.
• Counter system revamp: We are reworking and standardising the health to armor ratios of most Cruisers and Dreadnoughts so that the counter system is more robust and allows for emphasis on managing your unit composition instead of just massing Maulers and Athenas with little consideration,
• Cost ratios adjustments: The current cost ratios of Metals to Radioactives limits strategic diversity. For example, Air units are not as much a deliberate strategic decision as they are an eventuality due to needing a way to spend all of the excess Radioactives. We are looking into the cost ratios of Cruisers, Dreadnoughts, Air Units and buildings and seeing how they can be adjusted to create more strategic depth.
• Dreadnought rebalance: Ontop of the health/armor rework for Dreadnoughts, we have lots of other changes to Dreadnoughts and some of the their abilities to better balance them and refine each Dreadnought into their intended role.
• Base defense survivability: Base defenses were far too strong against armies, but then were very easy to clear with artillery units. We want to mitigate this discrepancy by removing armor so big enough armies can force their way through base defenses much easier while increasing health on low tier defenses so it takes a bit longer for artillery units to clear.
• Substrate energy rework: We want to make energy consumption less crucial for Reapers while more of a consideration for other units types while so Capacitors have a more consistent role to play amongst different unit compositions.

In our previous entries, we've discussed specific major new features of Crusade.  For this entry, we're going to go through a guided tour of what's new in Crusade over GalCiv III in terms of features and gameplay.  Strap in!

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Greetings! Spring is here and there's lots to talk about. So let's do this!

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We’ve built a new home on Mars. It hasn’t been easy, it hasn’t been simple, and it hasn’t been safe. But for those with the will and cunning, it has been profitable.

From Mars we went to Ceres, and created a refuge for belters across the system. Completely devoid of atmosphere and with a scarcity of resources that made Mars seem plentiful, Ceres was a challenge for even veteran Offworld entrepreneurs. And yet with all the resources of the belt flowing through, we once again had a lucrative operation.

Now it’s time to raise the stakes again as we venture to Io, Jupiter’s Forge.

Io will not be a home. Io will not be a refuge. Io is toxic and irradiated from its orbit around Jupiter. Covered in sulfur and the most volcanically active body in the system, this is not a place to tread lightly. However, leaders with the stomach for it see new opportunities on Io, and so this is where we will travel to next.

Over the next several weeks we’ll be instructing you on how to prosper on Io, beginning with more details about the moon itself. You might already be aware that Io has no water. This means that in order to survive you’ll need to be able to make your own. Next week we’ll tell you about how to accomplish that, along with everything else you could want to know about Jupiter’s fifth moon.

Even once we’re done with that there will be plenty more to discuss, so feel free to check out the upcoming schedule below.

April 19th - Jupiter’s Forge, everything you need to know about Io

April 26th - OTC Anniversary, a recap of OTC’s first year

May 3rd  - The Penrose Collective, Nomads of Io

May 10th - The Diadem Trust, Elite Entrepreneurs

May 17th - Trial by Toxin, Io’s Campaign

Offworld Trading Company: Jupiter’s Forge is now available on Steam!

Offworld Trading Company's new Jupiter's Forge expansion
takes you to the volcanic moon of Io and challenges you to thrive

You thought Mars was a harsh 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, landscapes, and tremors threaten your business model and force you to adapt in order to survive.

New Location: 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. New Resource System 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. New Infinite 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 environments of space get the better of you. 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 here on Io too.

New Faction: The Diadem Trust An elite business group with grand visions, they are ready to crush any other corporation that gets in their way. All of their advanced buildings - Hacker Arrays, Patent Labs, etc. - are top of the line and afford them an edge over the competition. For example, Hacker Arrays can create both shortages and surpluses at the same time. Oh, and the patent race? That means nothing to them - they can purchase a patent at any time, regardless of whether or not another player already controls it. It's all legal, they assure you - their lawyers challenge you to read the fine print. New Faction: The 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 (and upgrade them simultaneously), they are able to spread their operations across an already depleted environment in order to afford them easier access to more resources. They are also able to return 2 claims per upgrade, allowing them to trade in useless plots of land for something more profitable.