Disable politics

[Zuluknob]

It's not fun game play, It's not something you can just ignore like with civ or humankind, it's a chore. If it was further apart it might be better but as it is every few mins voting is too frequent.

Not engaging with it totally ♥♥♥♥♥ your game so you are forced to engage with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game mechanic. Kitchen sink game design. smh

[TornadoADV]

Landsraad is literally the entire reason for the Dune books or rather the events that happen in them. I must second/third others saying that if anything, we should be more involved with them and have more varied resolutions.

[Major Moolah]

You can make a strategy game without politics, but you cannot make a Dune game without politics.

[JuicyThicc]

If anything the political system needs more power and integration into game mechanics (new ones affecting the Air and Sand units/spacing guild favours +50% production, random city is weakened/reinforced to force microstrategy changes, etc)

[View The Phenom]

They may as well change the game and setting completely while they're at it. Politics is literally what drives the setting.

[NVDragon]

Originally posted by JuicyThicc:

If anything the political system needs more power and integration into game mechanics (new ones affecting the Air and Sand units/spacing guild favours +50% production, random city is weakened/reinforced to force microstrategy changes, etc)

100% agree. In my honest opinion, the complaints against the Lansraad system are rooted in three things:

1. It feels opaque.

2. It feels random.

3. At best it doesn't feel impactful, and at worst it feels like it only impacts you.

The opacity could be solved with a few QoL fixes. At any given time, I can close out of the Lansraad window and open a trade offer with any single player in the game to see their influence totals; why not just let players see that in the only window where it's ever going to matter? On top of that, imagine how much better it would feel if we had a preview of a given vote's consequences; it would be so much easier to make an informed decision about a vote if I could see that, for example, my research will finish in 5 days instead of 8, or my income will go to +40 instead of +3... and I'd be way more interested in infiltrating other factions if it meant I could tell at a glance that voting for Water Tax will put the Atreides deep in the red.

The randomness could be helped by two things: being able to propose resolutions, and being able to influence minor houses. Imagine being able to bid influence to pick one of the three resolutions to vote on; bid too little and you get no say, bid too much and your vote matters less. And in the early game, minor houses can randomly screw you if you have low influence/votes; imagine if you could get a positive reputation, or willingly follow certain constraints, to more consistently get the minor houses to support your positions.

Impactful Lansraad is simply a matter of reworking the resolutions themselves. -30% Influence production doesn't feel like anything if it targets an enemy, and it feels bad when the AI inevitably gangs up and sticks it on you. Research speed doesn't matter unless it happens to be in the tree you're prioritizing. Water tax NEVER feels good as-is because it's a pure-drawback that applies to everyone, and you can't easily tell how badly it's hurting other players.

I brought this up in Feature Requests already, but I'd LOVE to see more resolutions that have a mix of positive and negative outcomes. +200% unit costs but -40% unit upkeep is low-key the best-designed resolution in the game; if you see it coming, you can take optimal advantage of it, but if it takes you by surprise you can still play around it to a degree, and it disproportionately impacts some players more than others in a way that feels meaningful. Imagine if, instead of "minus income per positive manpower," it was "minus income per positive manpower AND ALSO increased heath and firepower for militia." What decisions would you make leading up to it? What would influence your decision to vote for/against it?

Lansraad could easily become one of the most engaging aspects of the game. I just wish there was more communication from the devs in terms of what their goals are for systems like this.

[adder007usa]

I agree with the idea of making more +/- resolutions. The water tax, for example, just feels AWFUL because of how badly it can set you back, short of demolishing the structures that produce it.

[Epic The Incandescent]

Originally posted by Ocelot:

disagree, politics tilts to table towards you and away from opponents. Honestly wish it was even more interactive.

it sucks as freman.