Apollo4x Reviews

4/10

I like trading games. The tutorial video is very good. This review is for the developers, but might also help people considering trying the game. I played offline, meticulously, a few rounds with the "can't run out of gold" and "can't die if favor goes to zero" to get the hang of things. Also I used the same cheats to rush to combat to make sure I understood the mechanics. (I DO think there should be an auto-resolve option, since combat is very different from trading.) Then I had 2 false starts with the cheats turned off. I'm on turn 6 of my 3rd game, 6 planets and ready to colonize the 7th. I followed the tutorial recommendation of paying 20 favor for the $30/turn income and 5-slot convoy. So far I have only done one long convoy per turn and the income from trades have been: 16-48-80-66-119 and 135 each turn. I also took your advice of investing ALL the money left over at the end of the turn to insure increased money over time. My ending balance before investing has been: 86-6-72-63-125-156. And my starting amount of money each turn has been: 200-60-62-77-96-131-153. How I play: I play with a second computer open to a google docs spreadsheet. + One page is a simple distance chart, showing distance for each planet from each other planet. + One page is a list of each planet going down the page, and the 5 products twice across the top. I then put in the buying and selling price of each planet at the start of each turn and amount of fuel they have. + Then I take a blank piece of paper and figure out who should sell to who. The game is set up so overall, there are always more sellers than buyers. At this point, fuel does not seem to be an issue (I'll explain more later), so I simply sell the least expensive items to the richest buyers. Specifically, I write the name of the planet and below it's name what it will be picking up to sell down the trade route. Above the planet's name I write what it will buy when the convoy arrives. Then I put a line between each planet on the route. Once I've mapped out the rough draft trade route, I count to make sure every single seller is satisfied and I haven't accidentally picked up any excess items. Then I write the distance above each connecting line to make sure there is enough fuel in total (usually one planet has 2 legs so I have to add 2 numbers). The lower grade planets have less fuel. To help low fuels planets, I have an A planet close to a lower grade planet receive the trade (and thus pay the bulk of the fuel costs) and then send a short leg to the "poorer" planet. A bit about fuel. You get 2 fuel for every city (if you want). Cities for A planets are insanely cheap, so those planets now have close to 50 fuel each, and they usually spend less than 10 per turn. I'll keep fuel at 50 for each city, and then begin using city income for other things. So I don't miss anything, here is my turn checklist: + check colonial demands - buy services if necessary + quickly cycle through planets and buy max fleets for each planet + figure out trade route (longest part of each turn) + buy services + colonize, add cities, and add corporate buyers + build cities on other planets + buy "network" if a planet has 50+ fleets + buy services - final time + save (maybe) + invade ? + invest excess money + end turn Conclusion: As I get better at the game, I might use my "off-line" helpers less, but I'm hoping this thorough summary of how I'm playing the game in my early stages gives you, the developers, some ideas on tools that might be incorporated into the game to speed things up a bit. Unique game. Happy I stumbled on it. Thanks for all the work you've done on it so far!