Realpolitiks -- February 2017

Simplistic seems to sum the whole thing up. I may get it on very deep discount at some point, but that’s about it.

Impressions?

It’s not out just yet, but from playing the demo I liked it enough that I will buy it once I get home from work tonight. I think I might try out one of the later scenarios that has most of the world in fragmented countries (UK broken into small countries like Albion etc.) in order to get wrap my head around an AI that likes to use nukes to solve its war problems.

My impressions from going through the tutorial (skipped the demo) and a few hours playing as an authoritarian Brazil are very positive. I am not good at writing about games using evocative paragraphs and narrative structure, so I will instead fire some observation bullets at you all:

[EDIT: Snip, see fuller impressions two posts down]

Thanks for writing that up, @Tim_N.

Just finished a full run as an authoritarian Brazil, which took roughly 7 hours. EU4 fans such as @KevinC and @CraigM, you should give the game a go!

Just in case this interests anyone I will post the final review I added to steam. For those who read the first impressions there is overlap (too lazy to rewrite everything) but also contains impressions of the mid and late game. I think there are some balance issues that will need to be patched which makes the later game a bit more uneven an experience, but it is nowhere near the levels that happened in Victoria 2 late-game or even the HoI4 late-game performance crawl in the release versions, so I don’t think it’s that big a deal.

Steam review:

My opinion of the game after playing a full game as an authoritarian Brazil are very positive. I am not good at writing about games using evocative paragraphs and narrative structure, so I will split the review into categories:

Presentation/Graphics:

  • Presentation and graphics are a step below current Paradox, perhaps somewhere between the EU3 and EU4 Paradox eras (if that means anything to you). The map is reasonably attractive and there is a number of neat little effects like planes and ships going around the map. I love the loading the screens that feature current world leaders playing the game.

  • The UI is pretty good, it takes awhile to get used to but I think it’s functional. It has some neat tricks that Paradox never thought of, such as right clicking a country on the map to interact with them. It needs a few things added in patches, such as a Bloc map mode and a handy way to see all current wars ongoing, and also information about what happened in peace treaties between other countries at the end of wars.

Gameplay:

  • The game is littered with clever ideas to simplify modern concepts to keep the gameplay (and programming difficulty) managable yet interesting. For instance there is no tech or ideas that you would see in EU4, instead there are “projects”, and there are alot of them. These projects may involve advancements in technology but also social policies, economic policies, special actions, etc. etc… Overall it gives you a feeling of having alot of options on how to develop your country, and a fair few of these projects involve gold / action point maintenance so you aren’t just clicking on a list but weighing up if something is worth it for your situation.

  • I think the UN is implemented well, you get to propose and vote on various proposals that do a number of things to certain government types or specific countries. Unlike the real UN it’s majority vote from the 12 biggest countries, but the way the Security Council currently works it would be very hard to make that into a good game so it’s understandable. Same for the exclusion of the EU and NATO from the game, their inclusion would most likely make the game a bit more boring.

  • Do not expect a deep simulation of modern economics, but you do get the feeling that you have to balance your budget / the services you give your citizens / economic growth and you can’t have all at the same time. I also like how they have modelled political change, where policies drift you away or towards democracy/authoritarianism/totalitarianism. Depending on what club you’re in different countries will tend to stick together, which we observe today as well.

  • They have done a decent job with the war system. Instead of pushing little units around the map (which is very hard to program a good AI for) they opted for ‘theatres’ that you assign forces to and conduct operations. I think that was a good move to keep it more managable. There are some issues with transparency, however, such as not knowing why things are or aren’t going your way. This is likely a design decision but I think defenders have a pretty big advantage, so I wouldn’t invade a country of similar army size (probably good advice for real world leaders too!).

  • In my game I did not observe any bugs or dumb AI behaviour. This is unexpected for the genre! Throughout the 2020-2100 wars happened regularly, and the conflicts were all realistic (russia pushing eastern europe, north/south korea, flashpoints in the Middle East, some regional African aggression, etc.) although there were some odd ones too (Canada vs. US woohoo (Canada won)).

  • I like how blocs work, if you are very friendly with a country you can invite them to form a bloc with you. Once formed, you can try to coax others into joining and then start introducing things to better integrate the bloc, whether currency integration, open borders, political integration, etc… The more integration though the higher relations have to be otherwise a country in the bloc will seek to leave it (much like what is happening with the EU). Blocs fight wars together so even as a small country you can try to punch above your weight.

  • The random events are all interesting and varied, you encounter quite alot of them during a single game but there was very little repetition which is a good thing (when I start a new game repitition will obviously increase though).

Balance / Small Things:

  • The two currencies in the game (gold and action points) begin to unravel towards the end of the timeline. If you’re playing well gold starts to exponentially increase around the middle of the time frame (playing as a fairly large country as Brazil, this is probably much less of a problem with small countries) while action points stay tight throughout but towards the end can be easier to game. I think there are some simple ways to alleviate this, which I will probably post in the forums.

  • To counteract above the gold and action point requirements scale up later in the game, but some things (like from events) don’t scale so you can get weird comparisons where something very cool costs you 2000 gold while some minor thing from an event drain 60,000 action points which is alot.

  • Random events can give you relations debuffs that can very quickly unravel a bloc (especially a more integrated ones). Again I think there are simple ways to alleviate this in a patch.

Summary:

I heartily recommend the game to anyone who is interested in modern politics, grand strategy games, regular strategy games, or anyone looking to try something different (there’s a demo too to give a go). It isn’t a paradox killer, yet nor is it priced like one, and by covering the near future it fits a large hole in grand strategy games. I am very impressed that the dev studio was able to tackle such an ambitious game with this degree of polish. I really hope the game thrives and expands with patches and DLC, and I also hope to see more grand strategy games by these devs in the future.

Sorry to spam the thread but I thought it was interesting to note that ISIL was a playable country in the game at release and a day 2 patch just renamed it (and changed its flag) to Mashriq. I guess they received a firmly worded letter from Valve or some other powerful party to get rid of it.

Most of the videos I’ve seen of the release version show weird results in combat - losing wars to countries that are both numerically and technologically inferior. Have you found that to be the case?

I’ve only played the tutorials so far but I’m excited to play more. I like that they’re trying to balance choice and abstraction.

Man you are singing sweet music in my ear @Tim_N. Modern day EU is very much a me thing. I’m wishlist if it now. Thanks ;)

Wow. I am playing my first game as Cameroon. I am having one of the best game experiences I have ever had. This game is telling me a riveting story of the near future while at the same time its mechanics are a love poem to economic theory. The fact that I can play Cameroon and somehow be able to participate in this story in a very meaningful way is fantastic.

I have no idea how replayable this is but wow. Loving it.

[quote=“tgb123, post:34, topic:127432, full:true”]Most of the videos I’ve seen of the release version show weird results in combat - losing wars to countries that are both numerically and technologically inferior. Have you found that to be the case?
[/quote]

In my game as Brazil I was mostly fighting clearly inferior countries and I was able to beat them fairly easily. It is a bit weird at first but sometimes you will ‘lose’ operations a bunch of times but still be winning the war as you fight a war of attrition against a country with less numbers. I do think, as I believe I noted in the review, that defenders have an advantage which is likely by design.

I once fought, as a leader of a south american bloc, a mexican bloc who had roughly the same numbers I did. I am not sure about the technological difference, but I was losing men faster than he was so I had to peace out. I don’t see that as a flaw, I probably should not have picked a fight with them.

In the end the Paradox system is better as you can smartly move troops around to try and beat, through braining the AI, numerically superior enemies. I don’t think it’d be possible to beat a superior enemy in this game. The war system has some quirks but hopefully some patches will iron them out.

Well that was very cool. Finished it and came in 5th with Cameroon as the world fell apart :) As mentioned the military stuff is pretty opaque and can be frustrating. Amusingly I was prompted to buy the full version in the end screen (I have the full version) but aside from that it was pretty bug free.

Nicely satifying and I have so many strories to tell about the rise of the cameroon empire. I doubt i will play it again for a while, like all these kinds of games, half the fun is discovering the mechancs, storylines as you go on. But I got my money’s worth and more.

Alright alright alright, I bought the game already. Have some mercy on my wallet, guys.

I bought this and like it so far. Tim_N nails most of my thoughts, although I’m still struggling with the UI a lot. Took me a long time to discover that right-clicking on my provinces gives me options for improvement. Also bugs me that there is no province summary window, I have to toggle map modes to see relevant information. Otherwise, for $19 I’m sure I’ll get a few playthroughs with different countries in and that’ll be worth the price of admission. I don’t see me putting the number of hours I might with a Paradox game though.

[quote=“abrandt, post:38, topic:127432, full:true”]Otherwise, for $19 I’m sure I’ll get a few playthroughs with different countries in and that’ll be worth the price of admission. I don’t see me putting the number of hours I might with a Paradox game though.
[/quote]

That’s how I feel too. There aren’t enough gameplay systems or unique attributes for each country to warrant sinking 400 hours into this, and I also feel at the end of the day the lack of units on the map inhibit lasting appeal. Hopefully the first two could come with expansions. There are an impressive number of random events, but even then after two playthroughs they’ll feel repetitive.

I’m enjoying this too, my playthrough as Brazil is a lot of fun. I could see at least a few more scenarios (because the game has many beyond the default) being fun to try once one has a better hang of all the systems.

I caved last night and am enjoying my time as Israel. As to the province summary window, I don’t know exactly what abrandt is looking for, but there is one under the Statistics tab.

I hadn’t noticed that. Thanks, I’ll have to check that out and see if it has what I’m looking for.

This is on sale for $10 bux:

It just received an update and its first DLC was announced for mid-March. Great time to jump in, it’s such a cool little modern grand strategy game!