Which way to expand?

[cicerodog]

In thinking about the future of this game, meaning Expansions, I am caught between what I would like to see more: Expand East into the true "East Indies" - all the Spice islands, Indonesia and the Phillipines, China and Japan; or to expand into the Caribbean, which could also include North and South America.

The Americas could add more MTI products, ones that are currently being treated as Export items, such as Tobacco and Sugar. However if it is just the Carribean, you are opening many ports in a very small area, which would/could lead to more engagements.

The East Indies, at least historically, would add new ports but would not add any new products, unless you break out "Spices" into more granular terms like "Cinnamon", "Black Pepper", etc.... And there seems to be more islands in the South Pacific, over a larger area, than you get with the Caribbean. However, you would still have the single route around Africa that IMO is a bit of an unfair chokehold. In the current game, putting a fleet of 5 Frigates or SOL's outside Cape Town or Natal (that you won with a Ship Factory), and you can just about blockade any other Company from ever getting any goods home. By incorporating a Western route, you make it much harder to do this (of course, you can still just camp outside their port, but that's a different matter - again, imo, this should spell doom for you as it's too easy to exploit.)

Anyone have thoughts or preferences about where the expansion should be?

[Celestica]

i don't think they will bother with expansion unless they get good money out of original. but it'd be nice if they do add north and south america as well as east asia all the way to korea and japan.

also, i realize that game's title is "east india" but i hope they wouldn't focus only to india to win the game in expansion.

i really hope EIC will expand and add way more ports and things to do, just like uncharted waters 2 by KOEI.

[delra]

You are talking EIC2 here, not EIC: van Rieebeck's Ambition (Don't google. :-P Guy who founded Cape Town).

Realistically I can see new ships added (Snow, Pinnace, Corvette, Barque or whatever else they have plans of, maybe Arabic and Asian vessels?), maybe a port here and there (would be cool to have actual East Indies (Dutch ones) in the game called East India Company) so a SMALL map expansion to show a part of East Indies and a part of China is possible, maybe some interface improvements will come along (they picked 50 (!) from the forum to consider, they won't add all in patches), maybe a new aspect to the trading game (smuggling! founding cities?) or more ships per fleet (imagine 12vs12!). And that's it.

I don't see EIC ever getting Americas, it would require rethinking the whole game. It would also be damn unbalancing if Spaniards could do their Manila-Mexico runs to load cargo on the Carribean Treasure Fleet instead of hauling it via dominated by hostile factions African route. Now everyone sails same way and has same supply of export goods regardless of his other colonies so chances are a little bit more equal. Americas rather EIC2.

I also hope they won't go for strategic multiplayer cause it will take months to do and only few people will actually be willing to ever play it. Strategic multiplayer despite all the whining should be an idea for EIC2.

And yeah, this game deserves an add-on, mostly because reviewers aren't doing justice to it, go see metacritic.com, they whine about stuff like 3D port or one speed in battles and deduce 1/5 points for them while they are already fixed. So it would be cool to show an add-on to them so they can rate the game after fixes and give it 80-85% it deserves. So NG are likely to write an add-on just to boost the sales by a new series of more positive reviews.

[cicerodog]

I would think there would be definite routes that would take you to the Americas - it's a long voyage, and you'd have to stop off in The Azores and/or Bermuda at least.

And an expansion East as well as West doesn't necessarily mean that the world would become Round. Since everything has to route back through Europe, they could just nix out the entire Pacific Ocean, forcing you to go from Manilla to Mexico via Africa. But this way you would actually have to guard the two main routes (African Cape and Azores) in order to blockade the enemy completely.

IMO, the game starts to suffer after 1670-1700. There just does not seem to be enough things to spend your money on, or new routes and products to expand with, no new ships to build, etc... Adding more variables would, again IMO, go a long way into stopping this game from becoming "Same Old Thing" after a while. Not that it's there yet, but I can see it becoming so in a few more weeks of playing.

[potap]

also, i realize that game's title is "east india"

The game's title is "East India Company", instead of "East India" What America? Beyond India there are extensive lands of China also entering into sphere of influence of the EIC. Russian fleet and so on...

[eikka]

Hey guys! This just in!

East India Company: Privateer Expansion
http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/sho...04#post1781804

"Paradox Interactive today announced the new expansion for the hit naval strategy title East India Company. East India Company: Privateer introduces players to a dark and mysterious world with allegiances only to fortune and a thirst for destruction.
For a preview of what players can expect from playing as a privateer, Paradox Interactive has released an ominous trailer, exposing the havoc and chaos the character introduces to the world of East India Company.

When playing Privateer, you can hire two distinct type of commanders for your fleets: merchant captains and privateers. You’ll be contracted by the crown or other powers for different missions, ranging from smugglin and escorting friendly fleets to locating, capturing or sinking important ships from enemy nations. Also included in East India Company: Privateer is a brand new multiplayer scenario entitled ”Breakthrough.” In Breakthrough, one team will attempt to escort their flagship to safety while the other team tries to destroy the enemy ship."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6oRN...layer_embedded

Here's a separate thread for this:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...d.php?t=423846