Thanks for the replies. I’ll defer for now since I am lacking in time to do the “2 hour demo” thing but will keep it on my wishlist for future sales.
It’s not specifically for the Secret Service council, that was just Tom’s example. You can use it for any leader. You can use it for a governor for revolt events for instance. Or for the foreign council leader when playing an Annexation card on a minor regime. It’s a pretty powerful card.
These are lovely
Are they new cards, or new art for existing cards?
Art for existing cards.
Have not downloaded yet, but they look really nice from the thumbnail. Thanks for posting this, Shards.
So… I ended up relenting and buying it anyway one hour before the sale ended. After briefly dipping my toes for no more than 10 minutes, the writing was everywhere but on the wall regarding my UI concerns so I quit and opted to try reading the manual first (urgh).
Long story short, for some reason Steam tracked having the pdf manual open in my web browser (as launched from the game’s splash screen) as being the same as having the game running. Even though I’d quit out of everything else. So I’m now half an hour past my 2hr refund window despite doing little else than generating a world.
I wouldn’t say I’m angry, or that I was even really planning to refund. But what the actual fuck?
So, a heads up for anyone else in the same boat.
Gotta close those fucking launchers, sir.
The launcher was closed.
Just double checked and yep, launch game, click ‘Manual’ in the splash screen, close splash screen and it’s still ‘running’ until I close the browser.
I assume Steam just tracks any processes spawned from it to indicate the game is running.
You can probably still get a refund if you explain to Steam support.
Oh, evil.
My previous observation was intended as an FYI for anyone else in the same boat. I didn’t want to refund this because;
- I’m aware of the processing fees that have to be absorbed by the developer when creating and then reversing such financial transactions.
- I had a pretty good idea what I was buying and made the decision to anyway.
i.e. if anyone deserves to be punished here, it’s me.
So; the UI is total dogshit and is pretty much everything I feared it would be. I’d expand on that but it’d be tiresome. And regardless! It is extremely compelling. I could feel it hooking me right form the start with the initial planet generation options. I catch my mind wandering back to it when I’m not playing, actually thinking about it, instead of just reminiscing. That’s a rarity for me these days.
It’s still early days for me, and there are certain mechanics I have grievances about. The decision to delay certain things so they only become active the following turn, for example. And I don’t mean newly created units having no AP, which is pretty typical for the genre.
So you like it! Good. :-)
I think that card is great. I would hold on to it. I use it when I want to vassalize or annex a neighboring minor. Depending how good your diplomat is this can be a tough roll. Since I put my best people into research directorates my foreign office sucks hind tit. I’ve used it like four times now and not seen a failure with it.
So much this, and it doesn’t really go away either. At least I haven’t yet “solved” the game to where it doesn’t still consume much of my thoughts while not playing.
The new episode of Three Moves Ahead dissects Shadow Empire (in a good way). Special guest star: @tomchick!
About Time!
Two things I agree with that Tom said: I have also not finished a game but I very much enjoy starting new ones. And at the 52 minute mark he talks about where he thinks the game fails due to the opacity of the logistics mechanics. Which is where I also stumble to the point that I stopped playing.
Yup, it is the one system that intimidates me the most. I wish there was an opening setting to opt out of logistics entirely. But I suppose that would wreck the intertwining of all the various systems.