I can confirm that the game design is hugely detailed and complex but it does make sense once you get familiar with how/where the information is presented. There is just a LOT of it to learn/consider. It’s easily one of the most information dense games and interfaces i have ever encountered. Just about anything you see on screen has an info popup or is a button or filter for more details. There are also scores (not joking) of reports you can review (no you don’t really have to) for extreme details of exactly what’s happening behind the scenes for all the points-math should you really want to know.
Vic (the designer) is also very open to suggestions and provides fixes quickly. When i was previewing the game and ran into problems i would email him the save and he would usually have a fix compiled and sent back to me within 2-3 hours.
Computer chess was in development for 40 years before then. The most brilliant minds in the entire world were working on it for 40 years.
Chess has 6 different units, one kind of terrain, and no tech tree.
One of the points of over-complexity in games like this is to obfuscate the rules to the point that you can’t tell that the AI doesn’t know how to play, and you never get good enough for it to matter.
The final section of the manual is “5.18. AI rules differences” which details exactly what/how the AI differs from the player in regards to game systems, complete with a handy chart (majors, minors, non-aligned factions). I don’t yet have a firm opinion on the ability of the computer to provide a ‘competent’ challenge. I’ve seen good and bad decisions/behavior from it tactically and strategically so far and don’t have enough mid-end game play yet to provide an informed opinion.
Thanks you, particularly in regards to #2. (You have to click on assets and on a hex for those 5 vertical buttons to appear, but that is sooo useful.)
As to #1, my comment had more to do with visibility than accuracy. I love the fact that you are looking at best guesses in many areas of the game, and that it is up to the player to spy or recon or whatever to improve quality of info. What I am less crazy about is that as I look at the map to make moves (whether to attack or to allocate units for defense) that it is not readily visible which major or minor you have a border with, along each section of your frontier. It’s color coding I would have liked to see.
Nonetheless, my overall impression at this point is very positive. For a game this complex, it is relatively possible to proceed to learn the game. I have been stymied far more by many other games.
The borders change colour once you have a defined relationship with that regime (from the start with Majors, once you’re at a defined war or peace with Minors).
A white border is “uncertain” and can be pushed back and forth by your units.
After reading thru this thread, watching some of @Vormithrax twitch, and noticing a 20% coupon from Wargamer I decided to jump in and get this. But the Matrix store doesn’t like any of my cards and/or addresses (we’ve moved in the last few months and our current address isn’t in a few databases we’ve experienced) and won’t let me make the purchase saying it can’t be fulfilled for me and to contact BlueSnap. Is this a known thing with this store and is there something easy I’m missing? If not, I’ll just wait for Steam release I guess.
Did you make sure to have enough Currency Points? First you need to build a Mint. This can be accomplished by having enough Supply (both A-type and B-type, OR corn) and Ingots. You’ll need to have already built Roads from the Quarry you’re mining the Ingots from, of course. Play the appropriate Stratagem. Then, five terrifying randomly-generated CG faces using 1995 graphics technology will appear on your screen. Click the one that corresponds to your Fund Council. Then take a Vote, unless it’s Winter, in which case you’ll need to wait until Spring (your guys don’t like to vote in the cold). Post here when you get to that point and then I’ll let you know how to get started.
Haha! I can’t even add a new card to my paypal, but I did a couple of purchases using the same cards on Steam and Amazon. I think it’s the address that is screwing stuff up since there are a few databases that it must not exist on yet since we still get errors from time to time like this. Ugh.
Edit: tried for like a 5th time and got Paypal setup again. Game better be the shiznit!
I bought this, probably because I have more dollars than sense, and I have 2 questions:
How do you replace soldiers in your depleted militia guys? I figured out how to do it with troops you raise yourself. If you look at detailed stats they are requesting 200, received 0, so is there a way to get them to full strength?
I FINALLY researched a thing, ‘Automatic Rifle’ (it’s green). So I want to upgrade? Or make a new model? Or make an Automatic Rifle Factory? to give my guys the new tech. How do I do that?
I’m figuring just reading the manual and starting a few different games will get me to the 30€ mark of value. Thanks for any help.
I think the HQ will “generate” replenishments automatically but in limited amount.
Regarding using new researched rifles, you first need to create a new model for that, but you need a design office to do so. The creation of a new template will be done through a decision.
I think the answer is no, the militia will replenish slowly on its own, but you have no control over it. (Maybe your support for militia has an impact, but I am not certain.)
Not sure whether you are satirizing the purchase process or the game itself, but this strikes a chord, in either case. :)
I am wavering between raving about the vast potential of this game and rage quitting over the way that doing routine things is made nigh impossible. I gave up for the night when building a new truck station failed to solve the logistical problems surrounding the city in my newly acquired zone, but woke up to find that DasTactic had put up three videos on solving this sort of problem. Just the fact that it requires three videos to explain road systems/logistics tells you what sort of game it is. I have other things to do this morning, but I watched enough to realize that there are relevant screens strewn here and there around the interface, none of which I would have been likely to discover on my own. So much, “be in this mode, then click here, then a button will appear there, and a panel will show up which does not look interactive but is.” Hyperbole, but not by that far.
This sounds like it needs many months to polish it up to make it playable. Hopefully they can. One of those games I really want to like but it sounds way to frustrating and tedious at this point.
