A Slice Of Life:

[theweaselking]

On videogames:

harald387: Man, my citizens whine SO MUCH.
Me: "Stop setting us on fire". "give us food". "That giant hammer thing smushing our children is not food". Yeah, I hear you.

Comments

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

harald387: "Manufacture more iPads."
harald387: "We'd like to eat something other than fish."
harald387: "There's too much toxic waste in my back yard."
harald387: Where the hell else should I store the byproducts from manufacturing your goddamn iPads?

[sarcasticmaster.livejournal.com]

Oh man. What game is this?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Anno 2070.

[falconwarrior.livejournal.com]

Fuck, that game is actually good? I was hoping it sucked, that way I'd never be tempted to spend the 50$ on it.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, I haven't played it. But he says it's a fun-if-micromanage-y 4X game with some fun twists.

[harald387.livejournal.com]

I like it; it's got a very pleasant soundtrack, the graphics are incredibly detailed, and I get to play at empire building ALL I LIKE largely without having to worry about a computer whose sole response to EVERYTHING is 'war!'. This AI can stop trading with you (and this actually hurts your bottom line). It can encourage other AIs to stop dealing with you. But unless you've gone out of your way to select an aggressive opponent (which is an option!) then it takes real provocation to get the AI to declare war; 'refusing to help' and 'expanding too much, too fast' don't do it (which is one of the things that always annoyed the heck out of me in Civ). It might also be very interesting to try in a multiplayer mode.

As Weasel's comment says, it is *very* micromanage-y; be prepared for this. In large part, once you set up a supply chain to produce materials, transport them if necessary, and then get the final goods to their destination, it's self-maintaining unless a situation changes (if, for instance, you are producing enough liquor to generate a surplus at 750 citizens, and equilibrium at 1250 citizens, but your population swells to 1500 citizens). The game heavily rewards planning - an efficiently-laid-out community and industrial sector are *very* handy - but doesn't punish haphazard planning too terribly; the worst that happens is you have trouble finding space to build.

Dwarf Fortress is probably the game I've played that's closest to this. That said, don't pay full price. It'll be on sale again soon enough (I got it on the weekend sale for $30 and am quite satisfied).

[falconwarrior.livejournal.com]

See, I fucking love Dwarf Fortress. Thanks for the tip on the sale, though, I hadn't seen it go on sale yet.

[whisperkit.livejournal.com]

I love DF too, so the comparison is probably the best way to get me trying this. I'll see if it goes for cheap in the next Steam sale.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

... wait, this is a game? I thought it was a congressional transcript.

[drcuriosity]

Nah, that kind of political conversation has been outsourced to China.