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by stupid newbie 01/16/2014, 4:07pm PST |
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The part that drives me absolutely insane is that there's no middle ground AND there's no real political impact. It'd be so easy to fix both, but they didn't care to.
All they'd have had to do to make MM right about the game as a test of beliefs was add some weight to the decision by making several viable middle path options available and having a clearly visible cost to it. 'Pay [significant % of current treasury] to enact a reasonable solution over five turns or take these two awful options offered by stupid extremists?' Take three or four reasonable options, dream up appropriate costs, and that's it - you've made the player put his money where his mouth is.
Linking the statesmanship element directly to the huge warchest isn't in the cards, though. That's FIGHT GOLDS in the budget! Food for starving refugees and military academies for female officers and a new habitat for the spotted owl, those all cost PEACE GOLDS. What is this, a Paradox Grand Strat? Having your costly third options enacted and burdening the economy like a real government chasing collective services so you arrive on map three with -100 gold a turn and a burning need to fix the financial crisis, that's not for their target audience. That's for big boys. Linking the disparate elements of this game is for a more ambitions studio!
Ugh. These devs have absolutely no awareness of what came before. It's like that one screenshot ICJ posted about VtM: Bloodlines in which you can agree like a jerk or agree like someone with charm and either way nothing changes. Why bother? If this game is a sermon, just use your voice actors to preach directly to the player.
You know a game that gets all this 'political choices with hero units and risk+RTS gameplay' crap a whole lot closer to right? King Arthur: The Roleplaying Wargame. A game that links political policy and individual choices to running a kingdom? Crusader Kings one and two. And probably a heap of others, all more thoughtfully than this rash of SWJ nonsense. I know I've gone on and on about King of Dragon Pass on this site, and I know it's about as silly as Dragon Commander when it comes to fantasy crap, but they got their event chains right: when you make decisions, consequences follow you around sometimes a dozen turns later, sometimes one or two, sometimes the whole game is impacted. There is no reason not to have borrowed some of those ideas. None. Except laziness and people thinking their own values are the only values.
But that's work. Anything to avoid work and call the player a sexist chauvinist gay-hating earth-ravaging pro sexual assault schwinenhunde(!). Sanest thing to do.
I guess this is what you get if reddit and tumblr co-wrote a game. I guess we know that now. The disconnect between thought and consequence illustrates it well. |
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Review requests: by fabio 07/29/2013, 8:13pm PDT 
Seconded RE: Dragon Commander NT by MM 08/06/2013, 8:19am PDT 
Word on the street: by MM 08/06/2013, 8:43pm PDT 
Aw, fuck it! I bought it. First impressions. by Mischief Maker 08/08/2013, 10:37pm PDT 
More first impressions: by Mischief Maker 08/09/2013, 9:42am PDT 
In other words, wait 'til it's on sale. by Mischief Maker 08/09/2013, 9:47am PDT 
Best and worst writing of Dragon Commander in two sentences. MILD SPOILERS by for a shit plot - stupid newbie 01/16/2014, 1:54pm PST 
the social justice bits are the worst, yes by fabio 01/16/2014, 2:31pm PST 
So which general was it? by Mischief Maker 01/16/2014, 3:24pm PST 
manic pixie by fabio 01/16/2014, 3:58pm PST 
Re: manic pixie by fabio 01/16/2014, 4:01pm PST 
wanted to stress she demanded summary executions because she was gay by stupid newbie 01/16/2014, 4:16pm PST 
Re: wanted to stress she demanded summary executions because she was gay by fabio 01/16/2014, 6:33pm PST 
So the choice is always between naive inanity and being Ayn Rand. NT by What great writing! - stupid newbie 01/16/2014, 11:16pm PST 
Oh wow by fabio 02/26/2014, 8:45pm PST 
I felt like you hit the nail on the head with the stuff you wrote, but man by stupid newbie 01/16/2014, 4:07pm PST 
Re: I felt like you hit the nail on the head with the stuff you wrote, but by Mischief Maker 01/16/2014, 4:35pm PST 
Because of the battles and the piecemeal accumulation of power, right? by stupid newbie 01/16/2014, 11:13pm PST 
Apparently I forgot about the quests in special edition, been too long. Might by replay it. - stupid newbie 01/16/2014, 11:27pm PST 
Castle Storm by Lurker 95453 08/06/2013, 9:05am PDT 
A lurker just saved me more money than you, MM. Get cracking with Shogun Skulls NT by fabio 08/06/2013, 7:37pm PDT 
You know my zero-tolerance policy for DRM. NT by MM 08/06/2013, 7:54pm PDT 
You know my zero-tolerance policy for FAILURE NT by *trap door button* 08/07/2013, 12:33am PDT 
Mischief just saved me $30 NT by your move, Lurker 08/11/2013, 2:28am PDT 
Resident Evil: Revelations, Teleglitch, and Dead Ninjas by Lurker 95453 08/11/2013, 7:39am PDT 
$50 for an old DS port is insane NT by fabio 08/11/2013, 3:50pm PDT 
I don't know if this was the best review I read in 2013... by Jerry Whorebach 01/02/2014, 12:59pm PST 
I'm incredibly forgiving of a lot by Lurker 340924 01/03/2014, 10:42pm PST 
Picked up Skulls of the Shogun at the half off sale by fabio 09/03/2013, 11:52pm PDT 
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