I believe that Shadow Empire is the exact level of detail that it needs to be. It is set on a post apocalyptic planet in a different solar system. You need to have three different production methods for the same few resources that all need careful consideration (except for water, no one on Arrakis has ever died of thirst) with different pros and cons depending on your situation. You want tiny icons to be able to see your little empire developing with new tech and your soldier wearing fancier armors. If you took anything out it would feel like something is missing. I'm also the type of person that enjoys myself a bit of useless fluff. For example I'd love to have a screen at the end of a war that tallies up all the costs (how many men killed, how many bullets fired etc.), but I do believe that there is a point where the detail gets too minute and it becomes too fiddly to get anything done. What I think is the game design pillar that makes all decisions so engaging is that every choice always affects three different aspects and it is up to you to decide which are more important. Things that do not further this goal are to be cut. Take ore for example. There is "metal" and "rear metal". There is no hematite, bauxite, quartz etc. There is also no metal refining in the form of a steel mill or simmilar. You don't need it since players would simply build it on top of their ore deposits anyway. I don't think that streamlining a game makes it more like work and thus less fun, quite the opposite. It should never be complicated to execute a game move. I believe the fun comes from making a plan, putting the pieces into place (preferably without loosing ones hand to excessive clicking) and seeing it play out. The example I want to give would be the dreadful logistics. The mechanics is incredibly unintuitive and you spent a lot of time guessing stoplight settings and building bypass roads. In my mind the logistics gameplay loop should be about figuring out how to rout a road thru the mountains, figuring out how get the fuel for the trucks and estimating how long I can afford to delay building a train station.

@battlemode

Ай бұрын

I agree with most of that. My one disagreement is that I like the logistical system. It does demand you engage with it, and the detail that makes it difficult to understand is the same detail that makes decisions within that system meaningful. Where the logistics system is confusing though is that there's essentially two different systems in there now, and they don't play nicely together unless you know how they both work intimately. I've had a lot of complaints about it in the past but I think most of them can be attributed to user-error.

Re immersive UI did you ever play Highfleet? The UI is super old school in that it depics a physical interface. You've got buttons, toggle switches, dials, lights that blink at you, audio beeps etc. If you want to fire 4 missiles you have to hit a switch for each one and then press the LAUNCH button. Super imersive and the strategy itself is (imo) pretty great to boot.

@battlemode

Ай бұрын

Yep, perfect example of an great UI for immersion and play

Indeed. Having just one way to do things like produce power would be boring!

17:28 - You keep saying that, but I keep saying that you don't have to micromanage the sliders one iota. You just click on No Orders and then 100% automatically goes to Discovery. I literally never move my Model Design sliders from 1% and 99% for the entire game. They design quickly when I want a new design and they unlock new types right away when I'm holding off on a new design. I don't have to micro anything about it. :)

@Mazth

Ай бұрын

'I do use this too as a setup once and forget about it'-feature

Might want to check on your Applied Science Council and Aircraft Council. I think it's been a while.

@battlemode

Ай бұрын

Good call, thanks!

Regarding the rant, I couldn't agree more. I like to play Paradox games, but recent titles feel really dumbed down and it is not because the complexity is not there under the hood, but because they are going for 'consolification' (or worse, mobile) of UI and 'at a glance' visualised statistics. People joke that these games are 'make line go up' but they're kind of are. You look at the visualised metric on one screen, and then go to the next screen which controls the input and click the oh so convenient single button, and then a few in-game weeks later the metric has done up

@0MVR_0

Ай бұрын

Any title will have 'line go up' moments the issue is to have meaningful obstacles and options to go around or through the problem. Paradox is most well known for europa universalis, where a player can plop 'administration points' then expect higher taxes next year without respect to the anomalies of a particular entity. In shadow empire, expanding the administration means building the bureaucracy, supplying manpower and power, and if outside the capital maintaining logistics. The concept is systems building, where growing can go wrong by the weight of keep everything held together and the units or blocks to achieve a goal are variable and can be mixed. Like adding infantry with machine guns or artillery; producing oil by extraction or synthetic production. The redundancies create options.

@0MVR_0

Ай бұрын

for instance, I am experimenting with using commerce as a starting profile and allowing colonization to occur without workers, using strategy cards to initiate private economies around oil assets so that they quickly turn to profit accumulation within a few turns and start urban development under neglect of government projects. The problem is this also promotes domination of corporate influence and faction demands to orient foreign policy towards monetary concern.

@battlemode

Ай бұрын

Shadow Empire works better for me than EU4 etc because it does more to hide the number shuffling. Paradox games turn into NumberWang unless you can feel properly immersed in the world: Shadow Empire immerses me better somehow

You might also check if your new Quad MG and Rocket Launcher have Compact Ammo. It shows in the Tech tab on units that have it. I'm just curious.

Hey, nice new video :) to the stuff that went on, maybe you can use them colonists that you hold? Mean yes they may move out but those are people not working and sitting around doing nothing, while even a little more mean a few % more production. Given you where down to 19% due to severe understaffed state. As for them front's, in the south, you could start to bombard them with the arty there to give it xp as they hit more relay able with it. Yes it is more strain on the logistics but then, it really started to catch back up with stuff. Not sure about the rep. Troops, but could it be that there is still outdated stuff in the HQ? Or just ain't getting pushed to the front? Well, was a blast to watch and listen too. Thanks for the work :)

@battlemode

Ай бұрын

I'd honestly forgotten about those colonists, man that's a good idea. Thank you! This is why it's great playing on YT, many heads are better than one.

@droog8400

Ай бұрын

Speaking of artillery, you still have those Recon plane sitting around don't you? They work really well with artillery because you can get 300 odd recon before even starting

@AT_Lena

Ай бұрын

@@droog8400 That's a good point, as thos means they will know where to hit. perhaps the littile push that them troops down there need. With them getting refilled and fresh omce again. Perhaps push more rpg units out to have more repleniahed perhaps too.

While I do like complex and detailed games like Shadow Empire, I do understand people who prefer simpler games because when I have longer work periods and I can't find time to play games I'll just do a 10m round in War Thunder at the end of the day and I'm happy to turn off my brain and just shoot at things for a little while. But the bigger studios and publishers know the money is in casual gaming (like mobile) so they try to cater to those gamers. As long as there are small independent developers and studios around to fill the market niches that won't be a problem, in fact, the ones that try to follow the mainstream trends have more problems because there's more competition, just look at all the "live service" disasters of recent years.

@battlemode

Ай бұрын

I totally agree with all of the above. I like simpler games too, my only gripe is that we need the complex stuff too, for those of us who like this kind of grind!

11:48 - If you want to build an artillery regiment, you really need a new design. You've got Cluster Bombs and Compact Ammo now, and you didn't have either in any of your existing designs. I would rather use three battalions than a regiment, myself, as I mentioned previously.

@battlemode

Ай бұрын

Good call

I think you built the wrong APC, because the last one you designed had Charged Gauss, not regular Gauss.

The UI absolutely needs to be modernized. Vic also needs to find someone else to design the UI for him. Developers rarely make for good UI designers.

@battlemode

Ай бұрын

I'd probably not be so interested in it if it was remade like all the other games I have.

@Mazth

Ай бұрын

What does modernised mean in this regard? I am quite a bit out of the loop so I have no clear concept of what a modernised UI entails atm. The looks are dated for sure, but I believe the retro visual theme has been done on purpose and I find it fitting and charming, though admittedly an acquired taste