Final thoughts on 3.4.4

[DondarfSnowbonk]

- Gold still needs tweaking. I think the cap is too low, there isn't enough for nations to do with it, and their logic behind saving or spending it, if there is any, is opaque. The continuous drain of gold while at war with no way to make income barring puppets and ally donations is also not ideal.
- Warfare needs adjusting in the sense that pushing at the same rate everywhere (terrain effects aside) feels strange and unsatisfyingly unrealistic. I and others have made suggestions for addressing this, but ultimately I think the solution is still a mystery.

Finally, I think the player side of the game needs more of two connected things: information and agency.
- A lot of the simulator's underlying mechanics are hidden from the player and I think having them more exposed would both lead to better feedback during Early Access and make playing the game more satisfying.
- One thing that would help address this and also improve the simulator would be giving the player access to more of the game's base variables through god mode. For example, I'd like to see adjustable settings for base income, base land value, base core cost, integration time, etc. More granular options in the nation and actions menus would also be good, like the ability to lock an individual nation's combat efficiency.
- In this vein, customization settings would also be nice. Good places to start would be to allow editing the default nation list, and adding some customizable terrain slots.

[DondarfSnowbonk]

On rereading this I feel like I should've had some positives in here to weigh out the critiques, so:

I'm having a great time with the game in its current form. I don't expect Early Access games to be perfectly designed, only fun to play, and you've absolutely met that mark. It invites varied play styles — I like to alternatively be somewhat interventionist, actively renaming countries and changing world parameters in service of a hypothetical story, and remote, watching like it's a digital fish tank — and the aesthetic style serves the game concept well. I'm looking forward to seeing where future updates take the game.

[scarfblob]

[JoySparkGames]

Some good ideas here, I'll try to address them in the future. Gold is definitely something I'm trying to tweak and it is quite hard :D Especially with all the kinds of map/nation sizes people have, plus some people play very differently, for example keeping the game paused and only using manual actions for nations...

[power man]

Originally posted by JoySparkGames:

Some good ideas here, I'll try to address them in the future. Gold is definitely something I'm trying to tweak and it is quite hard :D Especially with all the kinds of map/nation sizes people have, plus some people play very differently, for example keeping the game paused and only using manual actions for nations...

glad your making sure the game remains a sandbox and not a strategy game

[Relonee]

Originally posted by JoySparkGames:

Some good ideas here, I'll try to address them in the future. Gold is definitely something I'm trying to tweak and it is quite hard :D Especially with all the kinds of map/nation sizes people have, plus some people play very differently, for example keeping the game paused and only using manual actions for nations...

You the Goat Dev. Keep going and do you thing

[Gustavo_Saudavel2005-2025]

Originally posted by JoySparkGames:

Some good ideas here, I'll try to address them in the future. Gold is definitely something I'm trying to tweak and it is quite hard :D Especially with all the kinds of map/nation sizes people have, plus some people play very differently, for example keeping the game paused and only using manual actions for nations...

Do something to please these people joy spark games we can't miss the new big update of the game as a great Christmas gift 2024