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Feltan -> RE: Supreme Ruler 2020? (7/5/2008 6:36:45 AM)
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Hello Orwell,
I don't participate in the BG forums any more.
As far as the game ..... golly, I could write for an hour about what they failed to do. The game has three main areas: military, diplomacy and economics.
With regard to the military/wargame portion:
- One cannot combine units to form brigades of any higher echelon. You have to move and give orders to battalion sized units -- each of them.
- There is no strategic movement. If you want a unit to move, say, from San Francisco to New York -- they have to march. No rail movement. Sea movement is squirrely, and air movement just odd.
- The AI attacks in penny packets. One battalion, maybe a couple, at a time.
- The AI will never do an amphibious assault. If you are the UK, Japan, Australia, etc -- you will NEVER be invaded.
- Artillery is a killer, which is fine, but the ranges are very very unrealistic. Esentially, you move killer stacks of artillery around to vaporize the enemy, with ground units in front just to protect them.
- Generally, the entire gound and air game was built around an RTS where the goal was to build tons of units and rush your opponent with a gaggle of hodge podge units. It isn't a "wargame" in any real sense of it.
With regard to diplomacy:
- If you play a large country (US, China, Russia, etc) you will have every country on earth declare war on you no matter what you do. Belligerance is based upon build cap, i.e. how much you can build militarily. It doesn't matter if you don't build or if you act like a saint -- simply having a high capacity and potential to build a large military sets every contry in motion to hate you and eventually (within a few game years) declare war on you.
- Numerous issues with alliances and how countries act and interact with each other -- too much to type.
With regard to economics:
- Every country is based on a Marxist-Leninist economic model. Central control of everything, no capitol nor free markets. Think command economy where the central government sets production rates, builds factories, sets taxes, takes all profit from companies, etc. With that as the premise, there isn't much else to discuss.
Now the game has its fans. From what I have seen, if you have no idea how militaries, economies or diplomacy works in real life you might like it. I believe the latest version was targeted for the masses of RTS kiddies who don't know any better. BG might well increase sales with this strategy, just don't be fooled that it is a serious game.
Keep in mind this central point: the game is not a geopolitical simulator. It could be, it should be, but it isn't by design. Rather, it is Supreme Ruler, a fantasy game that doesn't try to model reality.
Regards,
Feltan
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