1.3 Review

[69Inanna69]

Played more than most, at ~750+ hours.
Post more than most ... And whined and complained about the game more than most.
So guess i'll post the review on 1.3 after ~12 hours.

Back-History.
Was happy with Pre-Release version - so posted a positive review.
Was pissed, it was released still full of bugs, game design flaws, and issues, so swapped to a Negative review.
Was happy with their prompt follow up fix's with 1.1, so swapped back to a positive review.
Wasn't happy with 1.2, added as many issues as it fixed.. So back to a negative review..

And ... took a break from the game for a couple of weeks to wait for if 1.3 fixes it up,, or not...


So.................................. 1.3
Not found too many issues so far...
Bugs...
1. While at war ... Often sailed my military fleet past enemy military convoy's , to go after the merchant ships... and the enemy military ignored me (A lot of times)
2. Old exploit is still there.. While in battle, if enemy is fogged, you can goto auto, then exit out of auto, and the enemy's fog is gone... (But dont fix this one, it is very handy. lols)
3. Game crashed on me after a battle twice (No im not providing save games etc..)


Suggested alterations.
Sinking ships is pointless, all that happens then is you get large losses and nothing back.
So .. please dont give me "Go sink 30 ships , in the first 2 years of playing."
Cause 1.... war's arent under my control, so...no idea when wars will be / ETC
And 30 in first 2 years is a lot.
And 2 ... since sinking is pointless and a large lose.. When you give me these objectives, i just have to delete game, and start again / with different objectives.

So best to delete or thin down the "Sinking" objectives.
Or preferably be able to re-roll objectives..

Rest so far is "ok" with no major issues.....
Will keep playing a bit more before i swap my current neg review back to positive.
As i still haven't blockaded yet / etc

************
Hows everyone else going with 1.3
Any major game design flaws still?

[Pirate Hunter]

So far I cannot find any advantage to declaring independence. Perhaps I'm missing something. I was hoping that you would be able to build buildings in the other nations. After declaring independence you lose all buildings in the towns that you do not administer. And then a trading licence in those towns cost 57 million each. If you want to declare independence...first administer as many towns of your nation before you declare. The trading and building operation in all nations was much better in PR 3. I hope some of you can clarify this if I'm wrong.

[69Inanna69]

Originally posted by Pirate Hunter:

So far I cannot find any advantage to declaring independence.

You get that done already??? with a new 1.3 game or old one?
I was thinking about starting with a small nation, so i could admin all of the nations towns before declaring independence...

But then thought 19 concessions would take too long, plus few for captains, and some for admins's So I just started a balanced nation split..

Even my old game. My nation owns all 60 towns, and the three other nations are 0,0,0,0
But I only admin 1-2 of the 60. So if i did declare independence, Id lose and be at war with the other 59 cities lol. But even then I've only unlocked 12/19 concessions on that game anyway.
And fames difficult to get on that game due to being the only nation left, and a high networth.

Like got to deliver 76.000 commodities / month, for the 100 fame max.
When needing 1700 fame for a fame point.

[TheCollector]

If you play a small nation, you only need to deliver 1000-2000 colonial goods per month, less if the capital produces e.g. cotton and coffee. That's an automated trade route getting 100 fame per month without much work ... let it run for a few years and you have the concessions ...

[Pirate Hunter]

I started a new game with 1.3, but I was curious what would change after I declared independence?? So I used an old game to declare with, and discovered the limitations. If you like trading and building your own towns, managing your own warehouses and production chains, I would recommend starting 1.3 new game with as many towns that you can, and then administer these towns before you declare, as these towns are the only ones that you can build in later. It will take some time, but you will have a game that you can control easier and make more profit. Don't be in a hurry to declare, because it gives you practically nothing. Like I stated in my earlier post, I see no advantage in declaring independence, but if I have missed something, I would welcome someone to advise me. Good luck...and enjoy!

[TheCollector]

As independant nation you should be able to declare war and capture the towns of other nations ... until you control all 60 towns ... without the need to spend up to 59 Fame Points for city administration.

[69Inanna69]

Originally posted by TheCollector:

If you play a small nation, you only need to deliver 1000-2000 colonial goods per month, less if the capital produces e.g. cotton and coffee. That's an automated trade route getting 100 fame per month without much work ... let it run for a few years and you have the concessions ...

Yeah did that pre 1.3.. IE stayed small and unlocked all trade licences, and building licences..
Before actually playing properly.. Then took over the other nations.

Now it seems still have to do that... But also do it for fame farming with 19 concessions.

[kalypso_Lord MK]

@Tanitha

Question about bug 4:
With update 1.3 you are not sinking captured ships anymore after battle, instead you trade them for prize money (it tells you the amount of money you are getting on the post-battle screen where you decide which ships to take over into your fleet).

Did you consider that?

[69Inanna69]

Originally posted by kalypso_Lord MK:

@Tanitha
Did you consider that?

Hello Kalypso Sir..
Yes. i was mainly ♥♥♥♥ stirring, since i don't like the sinking ships objectives.
As sinking ships in battles loses you a lot of $$'s

I've behaved and deleted the point 4.
Have a nice week.

[kalypso_Lord MK]

Ok, I am glad we were able to figure that one out.

We will look into 1 and 2 as well.

For the crashes in 3, I hope we will be able to experience them ourselves and/or get crash dumbs so that we can fix them. :)

Cheers,
kalypso_Lord MK

[⸸ Neon Dog ⛧]

Hi there, I'd like to make a suggestion!

I was checking out PR1 (my first game in the series was PR4 btw) and I think maybe it would be nice if the player could select how long do you want your game in "Free mode" to be.
For example in PR1 you can choose 1 Year, 2 Years or 10 Years.
So if you choose 2 years, for example, your objectives would be scaled down.

I don't know if it is possible to implement this feature in PR4 engine, but that's it

[69Inanna69]

Originally posted by kalypso_Lord MK:

Ok, I am glad we were able to figure that one out.

We will look into 1 and 2 as well.

For the crashes in 3, I hope we will be able to experience them ourselves and/or get crash dumbs so that we can fix them. :)

Cheers,
kalypso_Lord MK

Hello Kalypso.. They weren't big issues.. But some more info..

#1 .. (Enemy not engaging) Filled out a bug report here with more info
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1024650/discussions/3/2971775284270208170/

#2 .. (Combat exploit) Its a nice handy bug : ) and very useful.. So i actually like it being there... But fixi it if you have to hehehe

#3 .. (After Combat crashes) , when i had 13 ships , after the ship swapping page.. (2x crashes)
So ... its, crashed 2x .. out of 5 times being in that situation of having 13 ships.

+

I normally don't like supplying crash dumps, as i don't know what information is in them / about My computer / my location / account information / etc etc./.. So i don't consider providing info files to be safe / private / etc...

Can you please provide more info on where the crash dumps are / what data and information is held within them / and where you would like them emailed to ... and then i'll consider sending some.

Thanks

[daan_hugo]

Hi @Tanitha!

1.) I'll come back to you in the thread you mentioned later ;)

2.) We are already aware of this issue (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1024650/discussions/3/3012305144376269479/)

3.) As @kalypso_Lord MK implied, we must be able to reproduce certain issues ourselves.
I can understand your concern about privacy and I hope you can understand that it is quite difficult for us to gain knowledge about certain issues without some data. Here are some background information about the files in question and the way we handle them:

Dump file:
The data included in a dump file is not personal. This is an official feature of Windows. Microsoft states that a "dump file includes the entire memory space of a process, the program's executable image itself, the handle table, and other information that will be useful to the debugger in reconstructing the memory that was in use when the dump occurred." In case you want to learn more about it, you can find the relevant information (directly from Microsoft) here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/debugger/user-mode-dump-files

DxDiag:
The data included in a DxDiag file contains information about your system (mostly hardware and their drivers). As it is a *.txt file you can open it yourself with any text editor and perhaps censor irrelevant things e.g. your machine's name. When we look at those files, we're looking for your hardware setup (e.g. are all requirements met?), your drivers (e.g. make sure your graphics driver doesn't belong into a museum) and other potential issues (e.g. DirectX issues).

Savegames:
Our savegames only contain information about the state of the game, but this might include custom names (e.g. convoy or trade route names).

The way we handle such things in general:
As a company which is operating from Europe, we have to obey the laws regarding data protection and (as far as I know) everyone at our company had to attend a course on that matter which resulted in certification.


Instructions on how to create those files can be found in the technical FAQ: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1024650/discussions/3/2847921219517605172/

Anyways, if you change your mind and you would like to help us improving the game by providing the relevant files, we would really appreciate it.

Best regards,
Daan

[69Inanna69]

Hello Daan..

Thanks, I'll go through that when I have time / Soon... And i'll likely package it up and send it..

+ Also thanks to your team for...
1. The information which helps me feel comfortable sending it..
2. Your continued help with balancing PR4...
3. Your after game service.

And due to the above ,, I've bought Railway empire + all addons..
A few Tropico's + Addons, and Rise of Venice + Addons..
And I'm still considering if i should grab Dungeon's 3 or not.
+ i'll flick my review back to positive when i have time/soon.

[bcjiowa]

Hi Daan, totally agree with Tanitha and have submitted a positive review of PR4. I have also purchased Railway Empire + all add ons based on your efforts with PR4. I hope your team will continue to support this superb product, PR series is one of my all time favorites!!! You still have work to do on PR4 but your willingness to listen to the community and implement new features has been a breath of fresh air. Thanks for listening to your customers, keep it up and don't ever give up supporting and enhancing PR4......

[69Inanna69]

Originally posted by bcjiowa:

your willingness to listen to the community.

When they started this.... it was

Kalypso > "We have changed this... so now you have to play this / like this"
Players > "OMFG no... don't want to play like that every dam game"

Now its..

Kalypso > "We have changed this... you can switch it on, or off, in the options.."
Players > "Yay,,, now I can play it this way 1/3 of the time, and this way 2/3's of the time ... And now we have multi game variety."

And without the multi game variety / different play settings ... the game will soon get boring, and only be good for a few games..

Things like the war's... Now its.. Do you want small wars often, or longer wars less often.
And options / Yay...