Let’s get nautical! We talk a bit of Sea of Thieves and Subnautica. Then we towel off to discuss Dominions 5, Life Is Strange, Empire Deluxe, Scavengers SV-4, and Runewars. Plus a quiz.
Hmm, not showing up in the podcast feed. The last release was 12/8.
EDIT: It’s there now!
Based on what you’re saying about Life Is Strange, Tom, you should keep playing. And I’m biased (because I want you to get around to BTS) but also I think you’ll find that the stakes will rise, the writing gets even better, and the high school drama gets less archetypal.
Why do we have a million retro pixel-art games and yet nobody has made a worthy successor to Merchant Prince in 25 years? The universe is so unfair.
Reading about that game has always made me curious. Was it like a Renaissance Solium Infernum?
I haven’t ever played that, so I don’t know. I would compare the core of it to Railroad Tycoon. You try to make money by finding good routes where you can buy low and sell high in a very simple economic model. But where it gets interesting is how you get access to those trade routes through exploration and warfare. Both are expensive and risky, but they pay off if you discover or conquer a good trade route and get a monopoly there for yourself. There’s also a political and religious layer similar to Emperor of the Fading Suns, which was made by the same guys. What I can’t describe in words is how well these different systems in the game mesh.
What makes a sequel to this so tantalizing for me is that there’s so many ways those systems could be fleshed out more. Just off the top of my head I could think of dozens of things to add to the game that would actually be fun gratifying and worth the added complexity. Like how awesome would it be to have papal schisms?
Oh, man. Machiavelli: The Prince (the iteration of Merchant Prince I played) was fantastic. Why doesn’t GOG have it? We should all go vote for it on the wishlist!
There is absolutely nothing else like Solium Infernum anywhere.
Hey Tom, have you seen the Agents of Mayhem board game on Kickstarter?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/617871702/agents-of-mayhem-pride-of-babylon?ref=5seux1
I have! Be sure to listen to next week’s podcast. :)
-Tom
I knew there were some intelligent, cultured listeners out there somewhere.
I listened to this podcast today.
Tom made Sea of Thieves and Empires Deluxe sound pretty unappealing. Telefrog made Subnautica sound pretty appealing. McMaster actually made Dominions 5 sound appealing. And then the board game discussion I couldn’t picture what you were talking about for the life of me. It was all described in terms of other board games I’ve never seen. It was pretty funny when Tom starting making fun of “figs” though. And when Telefrog chimed in about the new Monopoly. I know that one!
Good podcast.
Right, the figs! @Jason_McMaster was so self-assured when he dropped mention of figs! As if other people actually talked that way!
Actually, I might be the one out of touch. I’d also think it was silly if people called them minis, but I’m pretty sure they do that. Not me. I like whole words like figure and miniature.
-Tom
When I was a kid they were called “lead figures.”
Here they were called lead soldiers.
They had that peculiar, metallic smell. I can still remember it to this day.
When I started playing Warhammer, they were all lead.