Feedback Space Age's Outpost Feedback

[Dudettas]

Please leave your feedback here on the Space Age outpost in this thread.

 

[FalkeNr1]

Hey,

firstly, I think the original purpose to introduce the outposts was great! A second "little city". Great for players of the last ages, because their cities are packed full of high-end buildings without any free space. In the outposts, they can feel some impressions of their first days in Forge of Empires again.

BUT when I arrived at Mars and then continued to SAAB I found out, that the outposts are quiet... useless...
In that stage of the game, you have EITHER enough Forgepoints to buy the goods you need for research from other players OR a Chateau Frontenac at a high level to produce the goods with recurring quests. So, the ONLY use of the outposts was to produce credits to start the production of Mars Ore or Asteroid Ice on the World Map. The only buildings I ever built in the outposts were residential buildings. When I just arrived at Mars or SAAB I instantly built the outposts full of residental buildings and then just visited them for collection.

So, to sum it up:
Great idea at the beginning, but unfortunately just an additional step in practice... Nothing you can really enjoy or have fun for a long time.

 

[Owl II]

I don't know how it can be misused. For me, in my living world, this is 1280 goods per day at the snap of fingers. This is excellent. Some players don't know what to do with a surplus of goods. But I have no such problems. I have the Treasury and I have negotiation. Here, on beta, it also helps. Here I have problems with supplies, so I only have 10 goods buildings and there are buildings for life support. The ore accumulates quickly enough in SAM not to think about it. In SAAB, things are more difikгlt. I spend all the ice on the production of goods now. And I'm starting to wonder if I should remove one or two goods buildings now, or stop production later when a new era is near. Because ice will be needed for the tech tree in the new age.

 

[Thunderbummy]

Initially I fill all space with residential to provide tokens for ore/ice battles - this ensures max speed of advance through the tech tree. Then convert to a balanced mix of resi, life support and 10 goods buildings providing 800 goods per day. Seems to work ok for me. I especially like that goods can't be plundered.

 

[Ian Santa Claus]

Here in beta I use the outpost to produce goods.
In live I use it to have goods ready so I can instantly complete goods collection quests during events, apart from that I ignore it.

 

[MooingCat]

First, what's your general opinion about the Space Outposts of the Space Ages?

In general, I think having an outpost is a great idea, but I'm not a big fan of the execution. The main problem is that the outpost are very 1-dimensional, and for the most part inconsequential (or even detrimental) to your progress through the age. Players in those ages can produce all the goods they need for the technologies through their regular city (CF, HC, SC, Event Building, Special Buildings, GBG, etc..), and if you want to produce goods in your outpost you have to spend special goods, which might slow down your ability to progress through technologies.

So if you don't need the outpost for technologies, there is not much else to use it for. You need it to gather credits for the map, but they are very easily produced and stockpiled. By just logging on once every now and then I have 1M+ credits, could probably have been 10s of millions if I actively used the outpost. There is no way to spend those credits, so eventually you just ignore the outpost entirely.

Of course, after you have completed your technologies you can use the outpost to produce extra goods, but by doing so you're again depleting your special good resources, and if the current ages are to go by, you'll need a lot of special goods for future technologies. Why waste special goods, which are hard to get after you leave the age, on goods you already have 10s of thousands of?

When it comes to the buildings and city planning, you really don't have to do much, you can't go wrong. You'll have an abundance of credits so you don't have to worry about maximizing them, and if you want to produce goods you're bottle-necked by special goods production, not by figuring out how to maximize your number of goods buildings. Life Support is also for the most part meaningless, spending a few extra resources when you have 100s of millions or billions of resources doesn't matter.

So to sum up there is no real incentive to focus on the outpost, but if you do there is no strategy to it, you just build whatever fits.

Second, how and for what do you use your Space Outpost?

For a while I used it for goods production, but for the last few months I've just ignored it.

Last but not least, which buildings do you usually build, and for what purpose?

Honestly, I couldn't tell, don't think I remember a single building name. I remember well building names from ages I haven't been in for ages, but I have no idea what the outpost buildings are called, I think that goes to show how little I've focused on the outpost... But either all residential buildings for credits, or max population/tile residential buildings + the goods buildings I have boosts for.

What would I change?

I don't quite know specifically what to change, but for the future ages I really hope the outpost matters for your progression through the tech tree, and that you have to actually think about how to maximize your outpost. One example could be to borrow the idea of separate units from the Egyptian settlement, so perhaps you have to get separate units in the outpost that you need to use for special goods production. Perhaps a bit too disruptive, but I'd like something to make the outpost necessary for progressing through technologies, not just a potential convenience. The credits system is one step in that direction, but it's not enough to make the outposts engaging.

 

[planetofthehumans2]

Stack it with a lot of goods buildings, although the interest is waning since goods are not really useful for anything other than GBG and even that doesn't necessarily mean SAA/SAM goods. Its also good because it's plunder proof, although what an interesting element that would be if you could attack someones outpost separate from their city...? Maybe you can only use SAA/SAM units since it's out in space.

It'd be nice if there was an outpost GB of some sort that can only live there.

 

[Yekk]

Thank you for listening to us. This should also be on the live forums though. It is important you get a large sampling. Both Inno and your players want a game to enjoy.

 

[xivarmy]

Outposts are fine. They're a nice influx of 'free' goods once you're done the tech for the age that can make up for the questing system being a bit more arduous in the space ages (isn't to say they don't have nice quests - they do; but they also have a lot more abort-presses since there's a lack of quests you can disqualify yourself from so they don't show).

I like that they're lazyish to run once you get them setup. The goods production they provide seems worthwhile and saves me from spending more time on questing.

In SAM I tended to mostly use the highest population houses + all the goods buildings I can fit with a minimum of the good credit-producers to "break even". I thought I was going to do the same in SAAB but discovered that the SAAB colony is limited by asteroid ice more than space for goods buildings. Still despite that it makes even more goods than the Mars colony so I guess I can't complain. Thinking I was going to squish in lots of goods buildings and not be able to make the credit break even i saved up a bunch of SAAB credits, but then it turned out I can't spend them as fast as I'd need to to feed a full complement of goods buildings anyways. So... I'm not worried about breaking even there at all either. I've recently switched to running it on 24 hr to make it easier to keep up with the ice demand.

I wish there was other things to optimize for in it, though I'm not sure what. I don't really want to see it become another place to tile with military bonuses. Great Buildings make no sense since you don't actually keep the colony.

SAM was at least an interesting puzzle where you had more than enough potential ore production and could make decisions based on what level of life support to keep. and try to squeeze in as many goods buildings as you could while maintaining that life support.

SAAB is less of a puzzle on account of you can't really support more than 10 goods buildings if you try-hard everything and 12 goods buildings if you're somewhat lazy on the goods productions but tryhard the ice-mining. Which means you may as well have full life support anyways - and there's not much stress to fit the goods buildings you want. In short SAAB colony is a simple 1kish goods a day.

• Last but not least, which buildings do you usually build, and for what purpose?

In my SAAB colony I have
- 14 space wharfs (life support)
- 9 asteroid drills & 3 bedrock processors (goods)
- 13 vault houses (population)
- 2 spaceview residences & 1 deep-seated housing (credit production and supplementary/fine-tuning of population)
- 1 movable abode (fine-tuning of population)

 

[qaccy]

I don't think outposts really work out as they are. I've been progressing through SAAB since it came out on live. I've been going slow though, I'll admit. But all I've ever had to wait for in order to continue is Asteroid Ice. I've never produced a single good in my outpost, but I've acquired all I need for research from event buildings and GBs, plus the quest rewards along the way. Because goods also cost Asteroid Ice to produce, it doesn't make any sense to be producing them in the outpost because then it'll just take me even longer to complete research. Requiring the age's special resource for both research and goods production is probably the biggest flaw to me...there simply isn't enough of that resource to be able to do both at the same time, especially early on when the map is still being unlocked.

As it stands, I don't really use the outpost very much at all. Pretty much just for credits in order to get my Ore/Ice from the exploration sites. And since I need all of that Ore/Ice for research, I can't spare any to produce goods. So my outpost ends up being nothing but residential buildings that produce credits, since they're the only thing I can actually make use of. Life support doesn't affect credit output, and since I can never afford to produce goods both of those building types end up being totally useless to me.

If it were up to me, special goods would only be used for research. I'd remove those costs from producing goods. Then I'd be able to build my outpost 'normally' and produce goods along the way without worrying about slowing down my research progress.

 

[xivarmy]

I guess one thing that could add to the interest level of optimizing a colony: some sort of boost to the mining from the colony. Something like certain buildings that can give you say +5% ice production each would add a layer of "well I could include some of those and then I'd have capacity for more goods but then do I still have room for life support?"

Edit:

Expanding on this I think it'd be best applied as a bonus to sub-optimal housing and life support. i.e. the best coin producers, population providers, and life support providers do not have any "ice boost", but perhaps the deep-seated housing, fuel tank, and underground reactor that you only use because you've got a spot and that's what fits there could have "ice boost".

 

[xxGuruxx]

At first the outpost was used to stockpile credits. Now, the Outpost is used for goods. Outside of the rush to create the goods quicker, the goods go to fill the Guild treasury, assist guildmates for new GB's, GBG.

11 Space Wharf's
7 Vault Houses
7 Space Residence
4 Movable Abode
4 Nickel Excavator - 460 a day
6 Bedrock Processors - 720 a day

 

[planetofthehumans2]

I guess one thing that could add to the interest level of optimizing a colony: some sort of boost to the mining from the colony. Something like certain buildings that can give you say +5% ice production each would add a layer of "well I could include some of those and then I'd have capacity for more goods but then do I still have room for life support?"

Edit:

Expanding on this I think it'd be best applied as a bonus to sub-optimal housing and life support. i.e. the best coin producers, population providers, and life support providers do not have any "ice boost", but perhaps the deep-seated housing, fuel tank, and underground reactor that you only use because you've got a spot and that's what fits there could have "ice boost".

Do you not think people would be interested in colony GB with these attributes? Is it a waste of FP knowing the colony is temporary? I'm not sure, I think some people will go for it especially if they're waiting for the next age to come in 6+ months.

 

[xivarmy]

Do you not think people would be interested in colony GB with these attributes? Is it a waste of FP knowing the colony is temporary? I'm not sure, I think some people will go for it especially if they're waiting for the next age to come in 6+ months.

It'd depend how many FP and you'd also probably have to level it yourself without support from others arcs since other players have no access to your colony - unless they plan to change that. Would I be willing to invest a little in making more ice? Sure. But where a small bonus on buildings that take the space of the buildings I'd otherwise want makes an interesting puzzle (how many do I want instead of other things? How can I squeeze them in while maximizing my other things?), a single building I just pour FP into is boring.

It'd also have to be *way* better than I was imagining for the small bonuses per building to compensate for the fact I'm basically throwing FP away.

 

[qaccy]

Maybe leaning more into how Cultural Settlements are designed by giving outposts their own quests and having advancements to unlock? Not necessarily just buildings like in CS's, but passive bonuses or even rewards for the main city could be unlocked as well. A special building for 'completing' it might be cool; no timed rewards for obvious reasons, and of course we'd keep the outpost after 'completion' in order to keep producing goods and credits (until the next age is reached).

 

[The Babelus]

Almost every High End player is using Space Outposts for goods production (you can change Ore or Ice for goods once you finished tech tree).
For sure they have enough from CF ad event buildings, but with help of Space Outpost production, they can sell goods for FPs. Or some of them are simply traiding for any era goods, to satisfy they GvG and GBG needs.

I think this introduced goods inflation.

 

[LastWarrior]

• First, what's your general opinion about the Space Outposts of the Space Ages? Very good.
• Second, how and for what do you use your Space Outpost? Goods for new era,
• Last but not least, which buildings do you usually build, and for what purpose? Both goods bldgs then air buildings when open.

 

[Praeceptor]

I suspected that outposts were introduced to cut down the whinging from players getting their goods plundered (although any player in Space Age who can't afford the occasional plunder is in my opinion playing the game all wrong!)

My goods stocks are now overflowing, and I just collect them to meet quest requirements. Having that exclamation mark over my space shuttle is now just a bit annoying. Perhaps make outpost buildings all 24 hour productions.

 

[an inhabitant of carcosa]

I use the outpost to produce credits to pay for asteroid ice.
I get my goods from event buildings.
Tbh, I hoped for the outpost to be more like Grepolis, with attacks from AI aliens and stuff.
In the current form, I couldn't care less about the outpost.

 

[Imp.]

• First, what's your general opinion about the Space Outposts of the Space Ages? I like them.
• Second, how and for what do you use your Space Outpost? Producing credits and sometimes goods
• Last but not least, which buildings do you usually build, and for what purpose? Residential and goods production