J1M
Arcane
- Joined
- May 14, 2008
- Messages
- 14,731
So I gave Settlers 7 a try. The only way to turn off depth of field was to reduce the graphics settings to low, which ironically doesn't look that different than with having everything blurred to shit. It's just a little easier on the eyes because things are crisper and at a higher framerate.
I like how there is no micromanagement of the military. You just send your general to a region and they do their thing. Though obviously the entire economy only exists to support the military. (like in real life)
This exercise made me wonder why there aren't more games where the military is absent and the opponent is not such a direct adversary.
Having an objective like, say, reaching 2% unemployment in a modern economy would be an interesting goal to have. The quick and dirty way of doing it would be to loosen up loans and let inflation skyrocket. But hey, you hit 2% unemployment so mission success. On to the next one.
To broaden the appeal of an economy management game they usually dumb down the mechanics and make them about rollercoasters where the goal is to make a profit. I wonder if a game set in a magic academy that featured a complex crafting system would be compelling. The place must import and trade reagents to support the training and advancement of its students who can then produce more complicated potions etc. for sale or use in crafting. Since wizards don't care about gold so much the goal could be something along the lines of training a lvl 10 wizard. Low difficulties it would be inevitable, but score based on time. Higher difficulties would have more random events and adversity, like perhaps a random reagent simply being not available and require the kind of inventory management seen in a difficult rogue-like.
Maybe add a wizard duel at the end of each year for more depth. There are prizes to be won, even if that just means killing a rival school's top wizard, but at the expense of costly reagents, etc. In some ways that would be like having a military option, since it can't be used to win the game and could be opted out of completely, but it would probably feel different.
I like how there is no micromanagement of the military. You just send your general to a region and they do their thing. Though obviously the entire economy only exists to support the military. (like in real life)
This exercise made me wonder why there aren't more games where the military is absent and the opponent is not such a direct adversary.
Having an objective like, say, reaching 2% unemployment in a modern economy would be an interesting goal to have. The quick and dirty way of doing it would be to loosen up loans and let inflation skyrocket. But hey, you hit 2% unemployment so mission success. On to the next one.
To broaden the appeal of an economy management game they usually dumb down the mechanics and make them about rollercoasters where the goal is to make a profit. I wonder if a game set in a magic academy that featured a complex crafting system would be compelling. The place must import and trade reagents to support the training and advancement of its students who can then produce more complicated potions etc. for sale or use in crafting. Since wizards don't care about gold so much the goal could be something along the lines of training a lvl 10 wizard. Low difficulties it would be inevitable, but score based on time. Higher difficulties would have more random events and adversity, like perhaps a random reagent simply being not available and require the kind of inventory management seen in a difficult rogue-like.
Maybe add a wizard duel at the end of each year for more depth. There are prizes to be won, even if that just means killing a rival school's top wizard, but at the expense of costly reagents, etc. In some ways that would be like having a military option, since it can't be used to win the game and could be opted out of completely, but it would probably feel different.
