Why isn't the main mechanic ever mentioned?

[jmc003]

So, the main focus of the game seems to be "lose, or retire, and accumulate points so that you unlock other ministers and starting bonuses to do better next time".

But it's never mentioned in the game. Not in the intro. Not in the tutorial. Not in any explanation text anywhere that I've found. It wasn't until I bothered to hit "retire" after a pretty successful run I was bored with that suddenly I found that the game was tracking my play time and wanted to give me bonuses for it.

Which kind of sucks for the other four hours I had put into the game, unknowing of this mechanic, where when I ran into trouble I just exited to the menu and restarted, because that's what you do in every other game when you realize you've lost.

Overall, a lot of the tutorial and help stuff feels like that as well - you don't get much in the way of telling you where to find things or how things work; the game waits until you click on something and then tells you what it was you clicked on. Which is great if your natural inclination is to click on everything to try it, but again, kind of sucks if you don't know it's there in the first place or don't see it to click on or don't even think it might be useful.

So I guess this is more of a suggestion - it would be really nice if there were a manual, or an in-game reference/wiki, or really anything that would allow someone who doesn't know what they're missing to read about the game concepts and mechanics rather than be expected to click on a button and find out that it opens a menu that had a lot of neat information they didn't know they needed, or even could get.

[Xuande]

I don't see that as the main point, rather a concession to the modern trend of games requiring progression bars to keep players playing. One of the first things I did, after a bug ruined a run of mine, was skip this progression entirely by duplicating a save and retiring it repeatedly.

Here are some mechanics that exist and aren't as obvious to all players as the developers might think:

* A few of the policy screens scroll down, having more than two sections! I only discovered this due to the minister that researches randomly - after all, most of the departments don't scroll down or have a scroll bar visible.

* Traffic congestion is color-coded, but as someone who is yellow-green colorblind I didn't even know this until my wife pointed it out. Perhaps pick colors or patterns that are more distinct?

* If the tutorial instructs the player to do X, and they do X before closing the message, then the game will expect them to do X a second time. For example, if you have a surveyor find oil when the game asks for it, and then close the message, then the tutorial gets stuck at that point until/unless you find more oil.

[Midas]

The intro video shows it to you that you are stuck in time, it throws it directly into your face ;)

[jmc003]

Originally posted by Midas:

The intro video shows it to you that you are stuck in time, it throws it directly into your face ;)

Yes. This has absolutely no indication that you need to "retire" in order to gain points to unlock new ministers and bonuses, however.

[Aldodrem]

I was thinking of starting a new run. Good to know this info, I was under the impression you could maybe have more than 1 game slot but with what you said it appears to be all or nothing, so I'd have to retire 1st before I started a new game?

I had wanted to do a new game since my current one is stuck in worker death spiral, but I don't want to give up that save since the 1.1 update is suppose to fix that.

[Ben4jammin]

Originally posted by Aldodrem:

I was thinking of starting a new run. Good to know this info, I was under the impression you could maybe have more than 1 game slot but with what you said it appears to be all or nothing, so I'd have to retire 1st before I started a new game?

I had wanted to do a new game since my current one is stuck in worker death spiral, but I don't want to give up that save since the 1.1 update is suppose to fix that.

You can have multiple saves. I didn't know that until I saw this thread and went back and retired on some of my first runs once I read this thread and realized that retiring helped you "level up"

[Umbert]

Originally posted by Xuande:

* A few of the policy screens scroll down, having more than two sections! I only discovered this due to the minister that researches randomly - after all, most of the departments don't scroll down or have a scroll bar visible.

I just noticed this, after 7h of playing. Maybe make it more obvious that some ministers have more than two policies?

[Aldodrem]

Originally posted by Umbert:

Originally posted by Xuande:

* A few of the policy screens scroll down, having more than two sections! I only discovered this due to the minister that researches randomly - after all, most of the departments don't scroll down or have a scroll bar visible.

I just noticed this, after 7h of playing. Maybe make it more obvious that some ministers have more than two policies?

I did the same thing for the longest time, not knowing that a few of them have scroll down options

[ArcturusRising]

I started 2 games, then after patch 1.1 was released I started a new game. I never ended a game.

[mabo404]

+1 on the idea of making it clearer that you get a change in the game when you Retire. It is something that I NEVER WOULD HAVE DISCOVERED MYSELF until I read this random message. There are no games where I say to the game "Yes, I would like to confirm that I am losing now". Its not even that I lost. Its that I'm now bored, or losing and can no longer win.

You just quit and start again. Every game, every time.

Given the demo real of the game shows how you are 'doing it again', the game itself needs to have that same message come through loud and clear. I would even suggest that the Tutorial scenario should 'make you lose automatically' just to drill this idea into your head.

[Kodiak]

This is very much on our minds and something we're going to work on.