The manual PDF on the Matrix site is still from before the game’s release. So, that doesn’t look likely.
Like what? I can’t really tell where the appropriate conversations are on their forums. I skimmed the changelist for the current beta patch (due out Monday as v1.04!), but didn’t see anything major.
What’s out of date in the manual? And more to the point, what are the changes in the beta patch that would invalidate anything in the manual?
-Tom
Don’t get me wrong, I think the manual is generally pretty great. (My main complaint is readability.) But the road-construction costs in the manual are a little out of date; they somewhat understate costs. They say 3 IP per 10 Action Points for a dirt road, for example, but the costs were raised slightly in late beta. I can’t think of anything else that’s currently out-of-date.
As for the beta patch, one potentially significant change will be an efficiency penalty for having more than 5 branches on a logistical route, like a railway line. I think that’s brand-new and will deserve a mention in the manual. Also coming is a minor (moderate?) nerf to truck efficiency, designed to encourage us to use supply stations and rail more, but I’m not sure where that stands. There was some initial pushback on both these changes in the forums: “you’re making logistics harder?” But in the main thread on the open-beta patches, feedback seems generally positive.
Discussions of the open-beta patches can be found here: Open Beta Patch v1.25c (4 dec 2023) - Matrix Games Forums The last two pages of that thread contain discussion of the logistics changes. I think they sound like good changes, but I haven’t playtested the patch – too busy enjoying my current game.
The logistics details (specific costs/numbers not how it works in general) were always wrong/outdated in the manual and v1.03 beta 10 and 11 make pretty major changes once again to the base numbers as well as additional penalties for logistic branches beyond the 4th from the source tile. I think most of the rest of the changes are bug fixes or tuning that most people would never notice.
I have not yet tested the changes as i want to finish my current game first.
Spock covers it. The beta patch covers 163 changes (I pasted them all, removed extra lines, and did a line count). The other small debate was over “You can no longer build HS Rail Station and Rail Station in the same Hex”. I don’t know enough about the game to measure the impact of these changes. I am watching for when the changes slow down and the game mechanics stabilize. I suspect the game will get even better.
This is the situation near my capital. I’m yellow, the bad guys are blue. We’re not at war yet, but he keeps demanding money from me, and I keep acquiescing, until I can raise more troops to invade and show him who’s boss. OK, so I’m a bit outnumbered. But I have other troops elsewhere in my huge empire, on his far border, ready to strike his soft underbelly! I got this!
Edit: also, for some space-age and chill music, check out Soma FM’s Deep Space One.
Dude how is it you have 4 tabs on the left? The second tab, looks like a head, what does it do? Never seen that.
Also why are you not using my UI mod? For your perusal…
PS: I also found a font that is a lot more readable, you may want to check it:
Hey, that mod looks great! I might give it a try, but I gather from your thread in the Matrix forums that there may be some issues with font-alignment on some screens?
As for my tabs on the left, they are (from top to bottom) the SHQ inventory bar, the unit bar, the profile bar, and the quick-zone bar (which I should use more often – it’s a great way to jump from city to city). From your screenshot, it seems you’re missing the unit bar. Did you somehow edit it out of your mod? It’s the option that lets you see all the units in a hex. I use it all the time. (There’s a mod for better unit-stack visibility, but even if I used it, I doubt I’d give up this unit bar.)
Hi, the better visibility text thing is separate from the UI mod.
OK I see your screen is not at widescreen, perhaps this was the dev’s way of making sure you have all the tabs. I have access to the same thing but at the bottom, at least I think I do. I was worried for a second.
Ah OK, maybe that’s it. I’m playing at 1280 x 800. I’m glad you raised it, because I realized I should be using the Zone-finder button more often.
Yup – he mentions this in the manual, page 56:
3.7.3. Unit Bar
This bar is only accessible if you have a very low screen resolution. In that case you’ll be able to see all Unit present in the selected Hex in this Tab. With normal or better screen resolution the Units will be present in the Unit Tab in the Bottom Bar.
Thus proving that I actually RTFM.
Heh, I actually remember reading that passage and thinking, well, I have a modern computer, I don’t need to worry about that! But my 1280 x 800 is rather low resolution. I just find it hard to read text at higher resolutions. I run everything at 1280 x 800 unless I have no choice!
Ha! I’m running Victoria 2 at 1280x1024 after trying every other option and concluding all the menus and text were too small. So right there with ya.
Do you guys have to do anything special to run it in that resolution? My native res is 1920, and clicking ‘change resolution’ in game does nothing.
I just want to check something, there are 2 pngs that look like they go with the main UI, I wonder if they’re used at lower resolutions, but coloring them does nothing at 1920 res.
Oh, and artifacts. Artifacts kick so much ass. In my latest game my first town was built right on top of a Rare deposit, and man they are powerful. Dig them out as soon as you can.
I’d guess that you’d have to put the game into a window? (edit windows.txt in the game’s root folder)
1.04 is out
These seem like big changes:
-Rail Logistics => 5pts per Hex * (instead of 2)
-Truck Logistics on Sealed => 7pts per Hex * (instead of 5)
Making those investments far less worth while, unless I’m missing something.
Yep, those two changes were much-discussed in the forums. They’ll presumably induce us to build more intermediate rail and truck stations and supply bases – and to get to maglev trains quicker. I like the changes because trucks and rail did go a bit too far before.
One other significant logistics change: “After the 4th branching (not counting the source) logistics “runners” will suffer AP penalties (5th branch=10 ap, 6h = 40, 7th=90, 8th=160,etc…).” We’ll have to plan our branches more carefully. Again, I like this change.
Nope, my native is 1280 x 800, so that’s how the game runs for me.
I have a 30-inch monitor, but I strain to ready anything on 1920 x 1200 or above. How do you guys do it? Graphics I’m fine with ;it’s text I have trouble reading.