Humanophage
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2005
- Messages
- 5,622
I played as a nationalist with a focus on anti-minority activities whilst maintaining some political freedoms. The idea was freedom and wealth for ethnic Sords, a boot for the rest. E.g., didn't ban Red Youth, and only implemented state propaganda when it was clear that we'll be going to war. In terms of the economy, I just did the things that seemed sensible and profitable. I ended up with a very strong economy, to the degree that when I implemented both the luxury tax and the alcohol tax, it still remained at 9/10 and recovered to 10 before the war (it was at 7 after the victorious war). One of the best decisions was to fund the secret police well - this lets you save the driver and the affable VP, as well as deal with the Bluds in multiple ways. Say, I attended their anniversary with a convoy and behaved like a boss, and also successfully destroyed their terrorists. They received a mighty pounding. In the final elections, I came on top, while the National Front came second. This seems like an excellent situation to solve the Bludish menace once and for all.
I think Suzerain could benefit from better closing credits explaining the outcome of your policies. So much has been written already, why not write a bit more to give a sense of satisfaction and completion? Give some more stats like you get in the briefings, for example, on things like GDP and unemployment. Give the breakdown of the vote by region. At least show how much vote each party got.
Unfortunately, the nationalist side does not seem to be especially well-fleshed out. For example, you never seem to be able to communicate with the Young Sords or coordinate anything with them. In my first playthrough, I was deliberately creating ethnic unrest hoping that it would make the nationalists more popular and would make them interact with me, but nothing came out of it. Also you barely ever interact with the National Front leader, although the party does seem receptive to your actions when it comes to voting. I.e., when I passed the constitution, it had 225 yeas to 26 nays, whilst I am certain the Bluds were against me and the National Front has 40 votes. There's not much you can do about the Bluds in general. I don't want unity with them; I want them out. One of the logical things would have been to use the secret police to direct the Bergia polio epidemic to cut down their numbers. Another would be to have some sort of a population exchange in the style of Greek and Turkey. Or grand them independence and kick them out into that state. Also you could use the feminist bill to destroy their families (birth rates generally don't seem to be addressed in the game).
I agree with fantadomat that the war is opaque and not well implemented. I did win it because I funded the army, kept the Gendermerie in the army, improved the military industry, had a strong economy, and aligned myself with both Agnolia and Lespia (but not ATO, and no IMF loan either). However, the communication about some of those things is poor. E.g., Iosif's arguments on the Gendermerie seem like a petulant tantrum, while he could have said that it is important if a war erupts in the area.
I disagree with the comment about the wife though. Having a complacent wife would have removed a theme from the game, that is, using personal connections to push undemocratic but "progressive" reforms. This has been done by many presidential wives of people who were not fond of that sort of thing. I don't think it really interferes with customisation - you can just divorce her. It's also not hard to keep her happy with empty promises; it does seem like she mainly wants a spotlight. Would have been fun if you could discuss the contents of the bill better, but I guess it's covered with the promise to have another bill in the second term. The game seems to adequately explain how she got increasingly feminist (it keeps mentioning "books").
Overall, however, it is a pretty fun game with quite a lot of interaction between your decisions. It doesn't seem like a bunch of +1 -1 counters masked as text.
Also it is interesting that the reforms seem like a big deal, but you can botch them and it doesn't seem to matter that much. I failed to pass them in my second playthrough out of three, and it didn't even destroy my popularity that much. I imagine if I won the war, I'd probably get re-elected, particularly since I psyched out and jailed Ricter with the secret police in that playthrough (but not the victorious one).
I think Suzerain could benefit from better closing credits explaining the outcome of your policies. So much has been written already, why not write a bit more to give a sense of satisfaction and completion? Give some more stats like you get in the briefings, for example, on things like GDP and unemployment. Give the breakdown of the vote by region. At least show how much vote each party got.
Unfortunately, the nationalist side does not seem to be especially well-fleshed out. For example, you never seem to be able to communicate with the Young Sords or coordinate anything with them. In my first playthrough, I was deliberately creating ethnic unrest hoping that it would make the nationalists more popular and would make them interact with me, but nothing came out of it. Also you barely ever interact with the National Front leader, although the party does seem receptive to your actions when it comes to voting. I.e., when I passed the constitution, it had 225 yeas to 26 nays, whilst I am certain the Bluds were against me and the National Front has 40 votes. There's not much you can do about the Bluds in general. I don't want unity with them; I want them out. One of the logical things would have been to use the secret police to direct the Bergia polio epidemic to cut down their numbers. Another would be to have some sort of a population exchange in the style of Greek and Turkey. Or grand them independence and kick them out into that state. Also you could use the feminist bill to destroy their families (birth rates generally don't seem to be addressed in the game).
I agree with fantadomat that the war is opaque and not well implemented. I did win it because I funded the army, kept the Gendermerie in the army, improved the military industry, had a strong economy, and aligned myself with both Agnolia and Lespia (but not ATO, and no IMF loan either). However, the communication about some of those things is poor. E.g., Iosif's arguments on the Gendermerie seem like a petulant tantrum, while he could have said that it is important if a war erupts in the area.
I disagree with the comment about the wife though. Having a complacent wife would have removed a theme from the game, that is, using personal connections to push undemocratic but "progressive" reforms. This has been done by many presidential wives of people who were not fond of that sort of thing. I don't think it really interferes with customisation - you can just divorce her. It's also not hard to keep her happy with empty promises; it does seem like she mainly wants a spotlight. Would have been fun if you could discuss the contents of the bill better, but I guess it's covered with the promise to have another bill in the second term. The game seems to adequately explain how she got increasingly feminist (it keeps mentioning "books").
Overall, however, it is a pretty fun game with quite a lot of interaction between your decisions. It doesn't seem like a bunch of +1 -1 counters masked as text.
Also it is interesting that the reforms seem like a big deal, but you can botch them and it doesn't seem to matter that much. I failed to pass them in my second playthrough out of three, and it didn't even destroy my popularity that much. I imagine if I won the war, I'd probably get re-elected, particularly since I psyched out and jailed Ricter with the secret police in that playthrough (but not the victorious one).
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