Autarky, But Why?

[Lantantan]

The game seems to emphasise the importance of self sufficiency, make all the things yourself good. But like why? I know its in part communist dogma, but like, isn't the end goal the abolition of borders after the global revolution? Why would even trade with other soviet states be discouraged? Game's great, just pondering the internal ideoligical inconsistencies.

[Elessar_warrior]

Originally posted by Lantantan:

importance of self sufficiency

The game for me is about building a giant logistical system, i want to build all the industries and push them to the limit, being autosufficient in the process. But many people play for different reasons. Personally the supposed ideology of the game doesn't ring with me.

[Silent_Shadow]

The game itself does not encourage you to achieve total self sufficiency, but the game doesn't offer many objectives (aside from the more recent campaigns), so many players see complete self sufficiency as a challenge to achieve.

[Incrediblejimmy]

Originally posted by Lantantan:

The game seems to emphasise the importance of self sufficiency, make all the things yourself good. But like why? I know its in part communist dogma, but like, isn't the end goal the abolition of borders after the global revolution? Why would even trade with other soviet states be discouraged? Game's great, just pondering the internal ideoligical inconsistencies.

Why do you think the game encourages you to be self-sufficient? It offers you to be self sufficient, just as it offers you to import goods...

[Lantantan]

Both of you make perfect sense. I guess I felt I was doing something wrong because the campaigns seems to place a lot of narrative importance on self reliance, while I was mainly preoccupied with making the most money. We're just flexing our mad gamerskillz by playing in an inefficient, roundabout way. I'm still curious why communism cares so deeply though.

[ling.speed]

Trade is a better weapon than sword to project power and autarky is its shield.
Its not people that need it but the state. And soviets were far from agreeing who runs the buissness.

But also one can look at it from purely practical pov. And some level of self sufficiency is good - it improves safety, supports regional culture, faciliates progress and better serve the specifics of an area.

[Lantantan]

Okay so it's the trade is imperialism thing, but does that apply when it's done by our fellow soviets? Wait, is our little republic secretly trying to become independent of the ol USSR?

[S'Aarum]

You can still export your surplus of goods to any of the blocs, that's what i do. While also being self-sufficient. ;)

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Lantantan:

Both of you make perfect sense. I guess I felt I was doing something wrong because the campaigns seems to place a lot of narrative importance on self reliance, while I was mainly preoccupied with making the most money. We're just flexing our mad gamerskillz by playing in an inefficient, roundabout way. I'm still curious why communism cares so deeply though.

If you try to impute lore where I'm not 100% sure it exists, it's not 100% clear where the advisors are coming from. Literally - are they from your republic, or sent over from Moscow? There's a nice little irony in campaign 2 where the initial text is about how your republic broke from the West because they only cared about your resources, and then one of the early objective options is 'ship crude oil to the Eastern Bloc'...

While not necessarily a part of the ideology of international systems, autarky is always tempting from the perspective of nationalists who don't see themselves as winning when they import things.



...Though also from a game perspective, yeah, it's not like you can't just build a petrostate with a population of like 20 firefighters, a set of pumpjacks, and an export line.

[ling.speed]

Originally posted by Lantantan:

Okay so it's the trade is imperialism thing, but does that apply when it's done by our fellow soviets? Wait, is our little republic secretly trying to become independent of the ol USSR?

What fellow soviets :) look in detail and its everyone trampling over each other.

It is a good point for the game itself thou. We are building a utopia after all, we could be working together! But if all soviet fellows did, player would need a whole new sets of mechanics.
Ultimately its a sandbox thats suppoed to "play well" within limted constrains of what can be created by a small studio, while staying in range of history to keep the feel right.

Autarky is showcased as a goal because it plays into content well, but player can decide to role play whatever he desires.
Besides that imho good way to get a grasp on all this is to do a dive on history of countries that were part of soviets, like slovakia (devs home country).

[Implied Facepalm Deadmeat]

Originally posted by Lantantan:

The game seems to emphasise the importance of self sufficiency, make all the things yourself good. But like why? I know its in part communist dogma, but like, isn't the end goal the abolition of borders after the global revolution? Why would even trade with other soviet states be discouraged? Game's great, just pondering the internal ideoligical inconsistencies.

Ive played this game alot and I dont think it promotes autarky at all. You literally can import form socialist states and western states(and have to).

autarky also isnt ideologically inconsistent. Sometimes it may be valid to seek self sufficiency, sometimes silly, sometimes actively harmful.

`Why would even trade with other soviet states be discouraged` this is literally 'the game'. I dont know why you think something that happens throughout the game is discouraged.