Focus trees are too complicated!

[Telenil]

But I understand many people don't find it that enjoyable because it's hard to distinguish some focuses/paths from others. If I had to give an example for myself, I'd go with the Mexican tree. As much as it's a brilliant tree, it has A TON of paths and I don't really understand why they all exist, because I don't know what's going on with Mexico.

So, focus trees, like the dev diaries that mention them, should give brief explanations as to what that part of the tree is all about and what the player is going to be aiming for going down the tree. Say you're going down the monarchist path in the UK focus tree. It should at least say that it's about the king marrying a woman, the player has to allow the marriage and abolish the parliament, and the tree is all about giving all the power to the king and bringing back the British Empire to its full strength.

This. I have heard about the Soviet Left and Right oppositions before, but the practical differences between them are not obvious, even after studying the focuses for several minutes.

If it's mostly flavour and some variations on economic bonuses, the way France handled its Left democracy vs Right democracy (a few focuses then branches re-joining) was a lot clearer, IMO. If it does drive you in different direction, it should be fairly apparent, either in a summary or the focuses having explicit names and icons.

 

[Pale Blue]

Soviet union tree isn't hard. When you pick a side in a first focus, half of the tree disappears and stops looking so intimidating

It's not just the size, but the effects themselves that are confusing.

Old trees have a clear you gain X. Whatever you chose it made your country better. Some choices might have been better than others, but all were helpful.

Now there are discussions in the forum's about new Soviet focuses like 5 year plan where people try to figure out if the focus is even a net positive for your country or not. And they draw graphs for that.

If a focus requires me to plot the countries economy over the years to decide if a focus is a net benefit, it's simply bad design. Its effect are made so opaque even for very experienced players its not clear by just looking at the focus tooltip.

 

[TempestM]

Old trees have a clear you gain X. Whatever you chose it made your country better. Some choices might have been better than others, but all were helpful.

Like old purge tree where if you didn't pick it early enough you suddenly got civil war?
The only weird part of new tree is Five Year plan which will probably be tweaked somehow

If a focus requires me to plot the countries economy over the years to decide if a focus is a net benefit, it's simply bad design. Its effect are made so opaque even for very experienced players its not clear by just looking at the focus tooltip

They put unclear numbers there, but the focuses themselves are clear enough: you get different produxtion bonuses but lose something in return

 

[Pale Blue]

Like old purge tree where if you didn't pick it early enough you suddenly got civil war?
The only weird part of new tree is Five Year plan which will probably be tweaked somehow

They put unclear numbers there, but the focuses themselves are clear enough: you get different produxtion bonuses but lose something in return

Yes old purge wasn't peak game design either.

See they put unclear numbers there. Why even put a Malus and bonus in a focus that directly work against each other? Why hide industrial effects in advisors and desicions instead of putting them directly in the industry tree like it was the case in old focus trees?

And it's not just the Soviets. For example Greece is just as bad. Look at their industry tree. It's a huge mess and is unclear what the paths are supposed to offer. Not just because there are a lot of foci that exclude each other, but also because effects are hidden outside the focus itself. Compare that to a tree like Hungary. It also has a split in the industry tree, but it is very clear what both sides offer. This way I can actually compare what path I want to take.