Smooth sailing until...

[Meal Worms]

@ HoosTrax: Yeah, it's possible to win the Sentient levels by not directly eating the enemy motes, such as with a scenario like what you described. Glad to hear you dug the Ambient levels! They're alot of fun. Personally, I can't decide if I like Ambient or Force more...

@ d4rk1982: Nice trick with the Ferax. Yeah, a great way to kill him is to hang around something you can eat, wait for the Ferax to come hunt you down, then grow at the last second.

Dave

[mjomble]

You don't have to restart each zone from the beginning. If you rollover a zone button, you'll see 2-4 little buttons appear below your cursor -- these are buttons that let you access each level individually. So, you can pick right up at A3B-3 without having to replay the first two levels.

One suggestion I currently have is to make those level buttons more clearly visible. Took me a good long while to realise they're even there.

[Zarat]

Great game! I've finally beaten all zones (well except the forever ones, didn't have the time to try all of them yet). I don't think there's any level depending only on luck. While randomizing can help to get a good start it goes down pretty much on your control-skills and the strategy you have in mind for the level. In fact I only reset to get a good starting configuration and then stick with it, that allows me to learn which paths are most efficient to use in that level.

I've found the ambient and sentinent levels the easiest, could get them in 2-3 tries once I figured out a strategy ... Ambient is simple once you figured out how to use the mechanics to your advantage. Ferax was also pretty easy to get - you don't actually need to eat it at all, you just need to get large enough and you'll get the win message. I ate it anyways just for the fun of it

The final force levels gave me the most problems. The warped ones were still ok, a bit harder than Ferax because the level takes longer and you have to replay more if you fail. The other two are the hardest in my opinion, unless you have mastered the controls - they are very unforgiving in terms of wasted fuel/matter. In Epicycles I had a very hard time to figure out a fuel-efficient way to get into the next orbit, and I was feeling a bit left alone. I was lucky I knew the basic physics of how it *should* work and was able to figure out a strategy on my own.

So my summary would be ... the force levels are the hardest because they are unforgiving and take long to replay ... and you need some basic understanding in space physics (or lots of experimentation) to figure out what to do ... more hints from the game would have been nice here.

But all in all it's a great game

[Meal Worms]

Thanks for your extensive feedback, Zarat! Glad to hear that you were able to think your way through the Epicycle levels -- from our perspective, this sounds like the perfect experience and pretty much exactly what we were going for!

We're looking at tweaking the difficulty on the last couple of attractor levels -- they're hard. Will keep you posted!

Dave

[HoosTrax]

Well, it took me the better part of the night, but it was worth it . After several hours and no small amount of frustration and trying over and over again.

Looking at Steam stats right now:
Graduate of the Osmos (Complete the game): 1.2%
Gravitronics (Complete all Force zones): 1.2%

Heh, does that mean that everyone who hasn't completed the game yet is stuck on Force?

[eddybox]

Congrats HoosTrax! Glad to hear you persevered!

btw, any old-school gamers out there recognize a quote in that win screen?

I'm looking into making F3A-3 and F3C-3 a *little* easier, but it's a delicate balance. I also want to keep it challenging and fair to the people who were able to beat them as they currently are as well. We'll keep you posted.

Thanks,
Eddy

[Tsukasa]

A *little* should be enough, at least I hope so

[lordnikon]

Nethack!

[Richard H]

Just completed my first run through Osmos though I'll be playing random levels for some time. I really liked the force levels and Epicycles 3 in particular. But then as a young kid I'd sit on the floor moving paper cutouts of planets, moons, multi-stage rockets and lunar landers. (Yeah, we all had our coping mechanisms for the digitally deprived 70s.) I always thought there was a video game there but it always got rather more complicated in my head than it should be. I can give that one up now, its been done far more elegantly here than anything I've devised.

[warning: spoilers, well as much as you can have spoilers for this game]

Didn't really have any particular strategy, just quite a bit of fast motion (occasionally in a slightly elliptical orbit that crossed the orbits of other satellites) and then taking advantage of close approaches when they happen. After a while you get an intuitive feel for when to thrust and in which direction relative to the gravity well to rendezvous with a tasty morsel. The orbits of other motes seem relatively stable so you can use a lot of fast motion without worrying about motes colliding and getting too big for you. Timing your exit from one gravity well to the next to reduce fuel use (sometimes using the central attractor as a conduit) is important. Once you start absorbing attractors timing this sudden loss of gravity is important too to get your desired velocity.

But for the most part I'd just see where I went and then take advantage of opportunities as they arose. I imagine it would be very difficult without the orbital line displayed.

Of course if the majority would rather see it a little easier I'm not going to grumble. I'm more interested in the premise than the achievements. It would be a shame though to (entirely) lose the necessity to work with the complex gravity system to complete the level.

I liked the other two branches as well. Delicately "thrust nudging" matter and antimatter in the Impasse levels. Cornering the AI and scaring them into donating their mass to you. All of this comes from the same relatively simple rules but explored from a different perspective in each level set. That moment when you realise each new implication as a different aspect is brought into focus by a particular level and think, "Of course!".

Visuals and music/sound were top notch as well. Nice work. Hope the game sells well (perhaps an Xbox Live arcade port one day?) and others are encouraged by your success. I'd like to see more games/experiences like this.

[Tsukasa]

Well, Difficulty is good and I'm happy if you guys get along with it. I now have 23 hours solely trying to beat the last Epicycles level, and I tried many different tactics it just doesn't work with me. I beated everything else in the game, but this last level is not working, and I am growning tired of it by now.

If it weren't for the unique style of this game I would have deinstalled it long ago, but this way I want to enjoy it more with the bonus zones. I'm not a fan of the Force stuff but I want to enjoy more of the AI levels and the Ambient Levels, it's just for me personally annoying as I really try very hard and long but it still fails and I have nothing new to experience anymore even when there still is stuff to be unlocked. Hope you understand my frustration.

Is there a way to unlock the bonus zones anyway? Maybe a cheat, or a savegame. Please...