Yep, there’s a lot going on on the earth map. It’s a little too easy to dominate once you have put the mechanics together I think, but the arrival of our purple friends can very quickly upend all that. I love how dynamic it is. My favourite so far is the following sequence of events - Initiative has Russia. Servants start taking Russia, I prepare a coup. Servants get Russia. I coup Russia. I take Russia. I disarm Russia’s nukes. I abandon Russia. Initiative takes Russia.
Some balance things are a bit off, like spoils being so profitable, assassination being too easy, and the dynamics of some priorities being better in smaller/larger states, because of the way investment points are calculated.
Alliance management is a pain, especially because the AI makes so many alliances with minor states. I think they could go back to grouping small countries together into one more than they do.
The problem is space and how they deal with the “powerful alien fleets” problem. It’s a shame they have gone with the “no stealth in space” reality. I’d prefer something where you develop “civilian” assets out in the open and have secret military bases and mining facilities hidden in asteroids or deep underground on mars or whatever.
Then when you inevitably decide you need to make the aliens angry you lose all your “open” assets and deployed warships but still have the core infrastructure, and you don’t get caught in the cycle of:
- Aliens attack space assets
- Some die, some are protected by your fleets or defence systems.
- Because you fought the aliens, they get more angry and send more powerful ships.
- Eventually you run out of space resources because you can’t keep your mines open.