New Campaign Started v1.7

[foster.r.l]

With the last major update, I started a new 1890 campaign as Japan with Normal Difficulty, AI Design Usage Mixed, AI Opponents Random, AI Shard Designs Selective (although I have none in the folder), and of course, build my own fleet. This is my feedback after completing 10 years of game play...it's now mid-1900 in game.

During my campaign, I have had one war with China which lasted for about 15 months. The naval battles were quite competitive, which is my normal experience with the early game. I did manage to capture both Formosa and Penghu before ending the war.

The levels of tension with each opponent is increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable as one would reasonably expect. My economy, as usual for an early start, has been appropriately challenging to maintain while slowly growing and building up my fleet.

I now have a fleet of 45 ships that includes 8 BBs and 8 CAs. All 45 ships were just refit with the latest technologies during the first 6 months of 1900. My technology level is currently listed as Average, which makes sense because I've never put more than 75 percent of the budget into research. The level did drop down to Behind on a couple of occasions, but generally recovered within a couple turns.

I never experienced any significant game play issues from a hardware or software standpoint and this continues to be the case. Yes, when I have a battle with 30 or 40 ships on the screen, I will get some intermittent stuttering of the graphics. This to me is completely expected and not something that bothers me in the slightest. When it gets somewhat bad, I just turn the acceleration down to x1 or x2 and the problem essentially goes away.

That's all I can think to include at the moment. I continue to love playing this game and will likely continue to do so for a long time to come. If anyone would like to know about anything I haven't addressed, feel free to ask and I'll answer as best I can.

[Izargon]

I've actually got a couple campaigns in progress...

America at 1922 from 1890 start is certainly the most successful. Sure, its beginner mode, but from what I can tell so far, the beginner mode allows you to choose going to war or not, when you choose to.

Like you, I havent experienced too many issues with the game thus far. I know reasonably well how the battle system works for the autosolver and the times in the battle mode for me have always worked. Sure there's nitpicks and quirks that I dont like, but those quirks settle down after a minute or so and it smooths out... The boat bouncing issue for example at the start of a battle is annoying but not game breaking.

As I mentioned earlier, I've gone through 30 years in the game and it feels like I've gone through more what with everything happening for the past 12 game years. Had the largest fleet in the world [and still do, even after trimming the old units after the last war]. Economy is still growing, research might still be stuck at "behind" even though my tech research is at 99% for the past year. Again, not a showstopper for me.

I'm still learning the game, even after a number of years of playing it, and if I'm reading your thoughts correctly, you too are also just posting your thoughts on the game while enjoying it. I appreciate posts like this, wish we had more genuine posts of appreciation rather then "X/Y is wrong, help/fix it" type of posts. I'm glad to contribute to your observation thread

If anything approaching a question is needed however, It would be how you dealt with the research issue where for some reason, one gets stuck on "behind". As I have thought problem currently despite my research funding being at max for the last year or so.

[foster.r.l]

Originally posted by Izargon:

If anything approaching a question is needed however, It would be how you dealt with the research issue where for some reason, one gets stuck on "behind". As I have thought problem currently despite my research funding being at max for the last year or so.

No questions needed, but of course welcome.

As I mentioned in another thread regarding tech research, even in the older versions of the game, I cannot recall ever falling farther than either "Behind" and "Below Average" for extended periods of time when playing on Normal Difficulty. By that, I mean any longer than perhaps a year, maybe slightly longer. I cannot speak for any difficulty levels above Normal.

Personally, I've never concerned myself with being overly worried about what the technology rating on the World Screen says...I know it will eventually correct itself. Even in those campaigns where my technology would fluctuate between Average and Behind, by the time my GDP grew to the point where I could keep the tech slider at 90% or above (1920 or so), my tech would quickly rise to Above Average or Advanced. At least it always has for me.

Thanks for the input...

[thunderspirit2014]

Started an Austria-Hungary 1890 campaign in 1.7. Spending a lot (80%) on tech and keeping the fleet small. Only glitch so far is that I had a conquest mission, took Montenegro, looked up a few turns later and Serbia had captured it- no warning, no 'war', nothing. Just Serbia had Montenegro.

Everyone seems to still be at 'average' tech (1898). Research is plodding along, but watching the 'log' nobody else seems to be coming up with super tech. I do use the research priorities to hurry specific things along- usually engines, small guns or torpedoes.

Diplomacy is a bit dicey but nothing unusual, lots of 'admiral x of country y provokes things', very little success in trying to improve relations. Stuff is going south with France and Russia, but that's to be expected. Trying to provoke a war with Russia, we'll see where that goes.