Stellaris grand strategy space game by Paradox discussy thingy thready thingy

[ravenight]

@MikeJ

You could have where you basically choose between some pathways for how you want to develop the planet, and it just updates it’s development levels, population and outputs in various categories according to reasonably simple formulae. You choose what the “development strategy” for the planet is, and the “development implementation” layer is just abstract.

I think the biggest problem is actually that it isn’t turtles all the way down, as currently implemented, so at some point you get to a layer where deterministic effects stem from precise decisions and it becomes a puzzle instead of a strategy. And that core puzzle isn’t enough fun to be so important. If it was sliders or zoning and you knew that all the sliders and zones really did was tip the scale on each stochastic decision that cropped up, then the organic growth wouldn’t be frustrating even if it was imperfect. It would also scale to sectors and even larger groupings with no difference, the way the CK “council” does.

So instead they try to automate puzzle solving which means either: lots of budget for very advanced AI, AlphaZero-style; very simple puzzles that completely bore players; or automation that screws everything up.