perde
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Joined: 8/3/2020
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e. Whoops. Meant to post in the beta patch thread.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Tomn
quote:
ORIGINAL: jwarrenw13
I've become confused about what the goal of the redesign of the log system is.
I can't speak for Vic, but here's how I'm seeing it:
Prior to the pull system being implemented, the difference between beginner players and advanced players was massive. As in, if you didn't fully understand how the logistics system worked, how to manipulate it, how to diagnose it and how to fix its problems, it was very easy to end up in a situation where your troops are starving despite having enough theoretical logistical capacity to tend to all their needs. Conversely, if you WERE an advanced player, you could make enormous cumulative gains in efficiency at the cost of a great deal of tedium. Not really an ideal situation for everyone - it's nice for differences in skill and knowledge to make a difference in results, but not so much of a difference that those without skill have trouble functioning on a basic level, while exploiting that difference to its fullest potential required a lot of tedious clickwork. Let's not think the former issue is a minor one, either - by far the most common topic in the forums is some variation of "What the heck is wrong with my logistics?"
I'm one of those people who begged for a change, and I can tell you why. It's because I wholeheartedly disagree with the second sentence of the post referenced above:
quote:
ORIGINAL: Malevolence
The logistic System is a gigantic mess
As a community, we begged for this change. Give the developer at least a few months to work out the kinks before demanding yet another change.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Dampfnudel
The "concept" of sending logistic points spreading equally in every direction is terrific.
You already mentioned the tedious fiddling required to optimize the logistics. That's all well and true, but that wasn't even my main issue. My problem was that the system was an awkwardly contrived and inherently unrealistic representation of managing logistics.
Not only was the actual gameplay (checking traffic signs every turn or knowingly overbuilding to "brute force" through micromanagement in a game centered around resource management) not fun, but it was made even less fun by the questionable connection to the real-life issue it was supposed to represent. It did not feel at all like managing a fleet of trucks. It felt like opening and closing gates to control the flow of water in a puzzle game.
Imagine a factory and a trucking company/army/entity in charge of logistics interacting in real life. It would probably go a little like this:
Factory: "We need 417 shipments to match our production this month"
Logistics company: "Understood, we will send 417 of our 1000 trucks there"
Great. Everything works out as long as there's available capacity.
Could you imagine the conversation going like this?
Factory: "We need 417 shipments to match our production this month"
Logistics: "Ok, we will send all 1000 trucks out. Then we'll divide 50% of them at the intersection to your factory. This will result in 83 extra trucks, but we like round numbers. Also we must remember to specify to our drivers not to take the dead-end dirt road to the North where they have zero business going, because otherwise half of them will get lost and do nothing all month."
Probably not, right? The old system did not feel like managing a group of truck drivers. A group of people can be told "they need X amount every month, so send X amount every month". A trucking company works on the basis of orders made by the customers in need of shipping, not by sending out trucks randomly in every direction and hoping as many as possible turn up somewhere useful. If a trucking company receives new fleet capacity or a new road is built they don't need to guesstimate new percentages for every road in the country to figure out how many trucks to send to a route they've been doing for 10 years. That's how liquids or electric currents work, not organizations made up of people.
And that was my main gripe with it. It was creating micromanagement out of thin air where no micromanagement should exist. Managing logistics can be an interesting part of the game and I'm glad it's being attempted, but I did not think the concept of "logistics spreading evenly" was terrific. For me it was bad enough to be a deal breaker that made me want to stop playing.
I'm not commenting on the latest beta builds, because they're clearly work in progress. My purpose in writing this was simply to explain why I felt a rework was in dire need. The old system was faulty to its core and a new one was needed, even if that results in an awkward beta phase. This game has potential to be an absolute classic played years from now, so I really don't care if some of the daily builds aren't as polished as the previous system that I hated even when it was "working as intended".
< Message edited by perde -- 8/3/2020 3:43:22 PM >
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RE: The logistic System is a gigantic mess - 
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